The Republic of Love

Shields, Carol

ISBN 10: 0140863575 ISBN 13: 9780140863574

Publisher: Penguin, 1996

Synopsis

A story of the persistence of love in modern times follows Fay, a fickle folklorist, who falls hard for her neighbor, Tom Avery, host of an all-night radio talk-show three times divorced. Read by Carol Shields. Book available.

About this title

Review:

‘A novel that’s so engrossing it makes you want to retire to a squashy sofa until you reach the end. Vividly fresh...glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises.’ Sunday Times

From the Back Cover:

Fay is a folklorist whose passion for mermaids provides her with a sense of continuity with the past. But is Fay in danger of using the past to escape the present? Of forsaking spontaneity for security? Tom, the host of a late-night radio show, is certainly spontaneous. If Fay is in danger of loving too little, Tom may have loved too well. Married and divorced three times before his fortieth birthday, he hopes desperately that next time around he will at last make the right choice. For both Fay and Tom, falling in love at first sight is at once an immense surprise and the cause of not a little trepidation.

“Mythical and modern, ironic and moving, exhilarating and melancholy. A love-surveying love story that is enticingly seductive.”
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“Carol Shields's novel is a hymn to the transformative power of romantic love. First 'Mary Swann' and then 'Happenstance' revealed her to be a writer of huge talent. 'The Republic of Love' suggests that she is simply getting better. No longer can our perception of contemporary Canadian fiction begin and end with Margaret Atwood.”
LITERARY REVIEW

“Perfectly rendered, a touching, elegantly funny, luscious work of fiction... I read it with awe and delight. I envy those with 'The Republic of Love' still ahead of them.”
NEW YORK TIMES

“A novel that's so engrossing it makes you want to retire to a squashy sofa until you reach the end. Vividly fresh... glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises.”
SUNDAY TIMES

“A buoyantly comic novel. It's impossible not to be enchanted by Shield's voice.”
GUARDIAN

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0140863575
• ISBN 13: 9780140863574
• Binding: Audio Cassette