The Grandmothers: Four Short Novels - Softcover

Lessing, Doris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060530111 ISBN 13: 9780060530112

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2005

Synopsis

In the title novel, two friends fall in love with each other's teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, vowing a respectable old age. In Victoria and the Staveneys, a young woman gives birth to a child of mixed race and struggles with feelings of estrangement as her daughter gets drawn into a world of white privilege. The Reason for It traces the birth, faltering, and decline of an ancient culture, with enlightening modern resonances. A Love Child features a World War II soldier who believes he has fathered a love child during a fleeting wartime romance and cannot be convinced otherwise.

About this title

Review:

"A brilliantly written book ... Lessing is at the top of her game."--Library Journal (starred)

"The four pieces that make up The Grandmothers are masterpieces of artistry and intellect."--San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"A LOVE CHILD possesses both a palpable immediacy and a haunting afterlife."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"Lessing is without peer."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Stunning ... showing Lessing's trademark incisiveness."--Vogue

"Powerful... beautifully realized."--Miami Herald

"[Lessing] has never written better."--New York Times Book Review

About the Author:

Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, Doris Lessing was one of the most celebrated and distinguished writers of our time, the recipient of a host of international awards. She wrote more than thirty books--among them the novels Martha Quest, The Golden Notebook, and The Fifth Child. She died in 2013.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060530111
• ISBN 13: 9780060530112
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336