Desire and Pursuit - Softcover

Delaney, Frank

3.86

28 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006497861 ISBN 13: 9780006497868

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

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A tale of love and revenge told in the alternating voices of the two principal characters.

Ann Martin has always believed she was born into the wrong family – the only child of Irish nouveau riche parents whose tasteless, name-dropping loudness she hates. To exact revenge for her ‘snobbery’ they manoeuvre her into an abusive marriage with her father’s brutish, wise-cracking business manager, Joey. But at her wedding reception, in February 1972, she is observed by an English journalist, Christopher Hunter, who is lunching at the hotel. He, a turbulent and withdrawn man, blooded in the savage intrigues of the Troubles, instantly falls in love with her. Thereafter, Christopher obsessively pursues his vision of possessing this beautiful and grave girl whom he has only glimpsed one bright winter day, though she does not even know he exists.

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Review:

‘A powerful blend of romance and hard political fact.’
Mail on Sunday

‘A compelling tale from a writer fully in control of his craft.’
Daily Mirror

‘Two first-person narratives twisted together into a fat plait of a story. I kept turning the pages.’
Independent

From the Back Cover:

A TALE OF LOVE AND REVENGE TOLD IN THE ALTERNATING VOICES OF THE TWO PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

Ann Martin has always believed she was born into the wrong family – the only child of Irish nouveau riche parents whose tasteles, name-dropping loudness she hates. To exact revenge for her ‘snobbery’ they manoeuvre her into an abusive marriage with her father’s brutish, wise-cracking business manager, Joey.

But at her wedding reception, in February 1972, she is observed by an English journalist, Christopher Hunter, who is lunching at the hotel. He, a turbulent and withdrawn man, blooded in the savage intrigues of the Troubles, instantly falls in love with her.

Thereafter, Christopher obsessively pursues his vision of possessing this beautiful and grave girl whom he has glimpsed one bright winter day: “The woman I crave, as the earth needs the sun, does not know that I exist.”

Multi-layered and unpredictable, a psychological mystery of yearning and loss, 'Desire and Pursuit' is also a painful and deeply rewarding allegory, whose truth iis provocative and rich.

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