Winman references (and even includes) EM Forster and his classic "Room With A View," but skips Forster's poking fun at upper-class propriety in favor of expanding on his themes of the beauty of human character, the power of the independent woman, and love. Winman dives much deeper into that last theme by exploring many different kinds of love including passionate hetero love, same-sex love, parental love, love between friends, love of the arts, and even human-animal love.
Dickensian scenes of chance and fate decorate the story and a talking parrot adds the barest hints of mystical realism. Winman scoffs at traditional point-of-view conventions within scenes in such a deft manner that only other writers would notice (and envy.)
Winman is the rare author who creates characters so compelling that plot becomes unnecessary. She could have written four hundred words solely about the happenings at The Stoat and Parot pub and I would have hung on every word. I don't reread often, but am considering trying the audio version next. In case I wasn't clear--this is a beautiful read!
A captivating, bighearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, by the celebrated author of Tin Man.
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her…
This is a beautiful story. Gojan Nikolich doesn’t just set the reader at the 1960s Korean DMZ, but rather enlists them into the US Army and puts them on patrol. Nikolich’s novel masterfully weaves together the tumultuous love story of SP4 Eddie Profar and a brothel courtesan with intense geopolitical tension, communist plots, and—possibly—a man-eating Siberian tiger.
With compelling characters and smart dialogue, Nikolich captures the chaos and danger of a world on the brink of another war.
"The dawn still comes even if the rooster dies.""A haunting, nerve-wracking tale set in the eerie landscape of the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ)." –BestThrillers.comAn American soldier's life spirals out of control after he makes a fateful discovery on the Korean DMZ and then falls in love with a beautiful brothel courtesan whose tragic past becomes entwined in a volatile confrontation with Communist North Korea.It's the 1960s, the Vietnam conflict is raging, and a delicate Korean armistice threatens to fall apart at the world's most dangerous border, pushing the US toward the brink of another war in Asia. With his life…
John Boyne delivers Dickensian-like fiction from across the Irish Sea in his tale of Cyril Avery's journey from an illegitimate birth to a joy he never believed he deserved.
The Irish church and its archaic sexual mores play a huge role in Cyril's walk through life. Boyne's description of a young man driven by a heart fueled by hi-octane testosterone will ring nostalgic for most men--but Cyril's pursuit of love not only fails, it runs counter to societal norms. With the deft use of twists, turns, coincidence, and chance, Boyne weaves a lifetime of injustice into a story the reader can't put down, leaving hints that redemption might, just possibly, be earned through resilience.
'Compelling and satisfying... At times, incredibly funny, at others, heartrending' Sarah Winman, author of When God Was a Rabbit
Forced to flee the scandal brewing in her hometown, Catherine Goggin finds herself pregnant and alone, in search of a new life at just sixteen. She knows she has no choice but to believe that the nun she entrusts her child to will find him a better life.
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or so his parents are constantly reminding him. Adopted as a baby, he's never quite felt at home with the family that treats him more as…
After his over-zealous efforts to find his missing Search & Rescue partner fail, Air Force veteran Tyler Zahn is on the outs with Chaffee County law enforcement. When valuable oil paintings are stolen during a heist on a high-altitude pass in the Colorado Rockies, Zahn is ordered to steer clear of the investigation.
But when Laura Coker Long--the artist he's trying to date--has her most famous work stolen too, Zahn can't help but get involved. Trapped by a wildfire in a mountain retreat with a group of art patrons, Laura and her family, and an FBI agent, Zahn's search for the thief is hindered by more heinous crimes.
Zahn can't afford to screw up again. But he has no choice. If he doesn't step forward and lead, people may die.
