The Uninvited Guests (P.S.) - Softcover

Jones, Sadie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062116517 ISBN 13: 9780062116512

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2013

Synopsis

"The opening pages read like an episode of Downton Abbey...But Jones has something more uncanny in mind, and when the party is interrupted by survivors of a nearby train wreck, the comedy of manners turns downright surreal...Jones's effervescent writing keeps the course steady-even as her characters shed their civilized veneers." -- Ellen Shapiro, People magazine (four star review)

A grand old manor house deep in the English countryside will open its doors to reveal the story of an unexpectedly dramatic day in the life of one eccentric, rather dysfunctional, and entirely unforgettable family. Set in the early years of the twentieth century, award-winning author Sadie Jones's The Uninvited Guests is, in the words of Jacqueline Winspear, the New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries A Lesson in Secrets and Elegy for Eddie, "a sinister tragi-comedy of errors, in which the dark underbelly of human nature is revealed in true Shakespearean fashion."

About this title

Review:

"What a delicious read! Like something written by a wicked Jane Austen, ...I was captivated by its madcap nature and then, unprepared for the strange fruit that the story became."--Sarah Blake, New York Times Bestselling Author of THE POSTMISTRESS

"Delicious...comparisons with Downton Abbey will be both inevitable and fair."--Wall Street Journal

"Jones' clever prose and bright tone heighten her characters and setting...she adroitly draws the layers of character that are exposed as shameful secrets come to light."--Atlantic Monthly

"Exhilaratingly strange and darkly funny...veers off in a wildly surprising direction, and the way it plays out is delightful, sexy, moving-even profound...Will haunt you-but happily."--USA Today

"Ms. Jones's comedy of manners, which takes place over a single evening in 1912, gleefully exposes the family members' snobbery... The author can't resist harassing the Torringtons with the menace in the next room..."--New York Times

"Enthralling...An English countryside setting, an ever-twisting plot, and gorgeously precise writing add up to one delightful novel."--Martha Stewart Whole Living Magazine

"Vividly atmospheric...niftily deceptive...a story of shattered snobbery, transformation of character and in the end a surprising and eerily beautiful portrait of compassion...A sublimely clever book."--Mary Pols, San Francisco Chronicle

"Entertaining...Jones is a writer of admirable narrative energy...with a painfully accurate, almost Stoppardian ear for dialogue and a delightful streak of cruelty that flirts with...the gothic."--Lev Grossman, Time Magazine

"A delightful, eerie novel...Jones expertly balances the whimsical and the strange, building things to a climax of abandon, terror and restitution...Engrossing, enjoyable."--Philip Womack, Telegraph

"A comedy of manners that turns downright surreal...Jones's effervescent writing keeps the course steady-even as her characters shed their civilized veneers."--Ellen Shapiro, People Four Star Review

Book Description:

The prizewinning and No 1 bestselling author Sadie Jones moves to a gorgeous and bewitching historical setting in a blissful new novel full of spooky surprises - 'promises to fill a large, Downton Abbey-shaped hole in one's cultural life' - Charlotte Sinclair, Vogue

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062116517
• ISBN 13: 9780062116512
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288