Strange Music - Hardcover

Fish, Laura

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224080857 ISBN 13: 9780224080859

Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 2008

Synopsis

In 1837 an ailing Elizabeth Barrett is confined to bed, suffering debilitating illness. Longing for a return to health and mobility, she corresponds with friends, endures uncomfortable remedies, writes poetry and frets over her father and siblings. On the Barrett estate in Jamaica a Creole maidservant named Kaydia is struggling to save her child from the abusive attentions of the master. In the cane fields, indentured laborer and former slave Sheba mourns the loss of her lover. In this richly complex novel, Laura Fish recreates the worlds of three women whose lives are inextricably linked at a moment of crisis within the Barrett family.Moving from Torquay in Devon to Cinnamon Hill in Jamaica, "Strange Music" explores the notion that history consists of multiple, even contradictory versions. Kaydia and Sheba narrate their stories in a distinctive patois, with a depth of emotion and experience that is heart-rending. Like Jamaica, they struggle to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present. Elizabeth is geographically and emotionally distant, at once consumed with domestic minutiae and, as she matures as a writer, painfully aware of the source of her wealth and privilege. This hugely ambitious and rewarding story marks the return of a writer gifted with an unforgettable lyrical voice. As Elizabeth, Kaydia and Sheba struggle, each in her own way, towards emancipation, "Laura Fish" evokes the inescapable violence of slavery in prose that is immediate, consuming and ultimately redeeming.

About this title

Review:

'extraordinary second novel' -- Scotland on Sunday, Marc Lambert

Book of a Lifetime -- Independent

`Fish is a passionate and poetic writer'
-- Telegraph, Rev's by Helen Brown

`clearly a gifted writer, and her manipulation of language is her forte - brilliant, sensuous and shocking' -- Sunday Times, Rev'd Elizabeth Buchan

`once Strange Music grips you, you won't be able to put it down'
-- The Independent, Andrea Stuart

Book Description:

'Once Strange Music grips you, you won't be able to put it down' - Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0224080857
• ISBN 13: 9780224080859
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224