Day - Hardcover

Kennedy, A.L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224077864 ISBN 13: 9780224077866

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

Alfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and - most extraordinary of all - he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that's all gone now - the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too. Before Hitler and the bombs he was a boy in Staffordshire, helpless to defend his mother, to resist his abusive father. The RAF gave him order, skills, another family and a way to be a man. It taught him how to burn through lifetimes on night ops and brief, sweet leaves, surviving the unsurvivable. But it didn't prepare him for capture, for the prison camp and the chaos as the war wound down. It didn't prepare him for an empty peace. Now it's 1949 and Alfred is doing the impossible again, winding back time to see where he lost himself. He has taken the role of an extra in a Pow film. Shipped out to Germany and an ersatz camp, he picks his way through the cliches that will become all that's left of his war and begins to do what he's never dared - to remember. He is looking for some semblance of hope: trying to move forward by going back. A superbly realised novel about the brutal simplicities of war - of horror, and the camaraderie found in the closeness to death - and a moving exploration of the complexities of human emotion, "Day" is a wonderful piece of storytelling: the freight of history and humanity carried effortlessly by the beauty of the writing. For previous readers of A.L. Kennedy's books the dark humour, close observation and thrillingly original language will come as no surprise; for new readers, this novel will be a revelation.

About this title

Review:

'bleak...undershot with redeeming humour"
-- Sunday Times Ecosse, Gillian Bowditch

` Day confirms, if confirmation were needed, that Kennedy is a singular,
superlative author. I hope that the judges of this year's Man Booker prize
pay particular attention to it.' -- Scotland on Sun

`well deserved to win the 2007 Costa book of the year award...sophisticated texture...Kennedy manages to make every battle truism fresh' -- The Economist

"A stunning read" -- Daily Mail

"Day is a remarkable performance" -- Sunday Telegraph

"The freight of history and humanity is carried effortlessly by
Kennedy in this exquisite novel" -- So London Magazine

"a forceful, wholly achieved piece of work by a writer of enormous power... ought to win all the prizes going." -- Daily Telegraph, April 16, 2007

"what Kennedy sets out to accomplish, she achieves" -- Sunday Herald, April 22, 2007

'An utterly engrossing read' -- Metro

'Kennedy writes with a finely calculated poetic freedom' -- The Herald

From the Publisher:

A magnificent novel about war by one of the finest living British writers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0224077864
• ISBN 13: 9780224077866
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288