Cousins - Hardcover

Vickers, Salley

3.69

1,367 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241187710 ISBN 13: 9780241187715

Publisher: Viking, 2016

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'A wonderful book. Salley Vickers spins a spellbinding account of a family in distress' Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge

How much can love ask of us?

Brilliant and mercurial Will Tye suffers a life changing accident. The terrible event ripples through three generations of the complex and eccentric Tye family, bringing to light old tragedies and dangerous secrets. Each member of the family holds some clue to the chain of events which may have led to the accident and each holds themselves to blame. Most closely affected is Will's cousin Cecelia, whose affinity with Will leaves her most vulnerable to his suffering and whose own life is for ever changed by how she will respond to it.

Told through the eyes of three women close to Will, his sister, his grandmother and his aunt, Cousins is a novel weaving darkness and light which takes us from the outbreak of World War Two to the present day, exploring the recurrence of tragedy, the nature of trangression, and the limits of morality and love.

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Review:

A wonderful book. Salley Vickers spins a spellbinding account of a family in distress (Elizabeth Strout)

Utterly compelling... Cousins is a remarkable book about the strange tact and terrors of family life and the histories that haunt it (Adam Phillips)

Each distinct voice in this complex pattern of relationships is presented with deep empathy and clarity, so that you feel a real three-dimensional quality in the characters. The most painful ethical dilemmas are laid out with compassion and without manipulation. A serious, mature book that is also compellingly enjoyable (Rowan Williams)

Vickers has a formidable knack for laying open the human heart... a layered family drama (Sunday Times)

A story of secrets, lies and history is elegantly handled... She lays bare the inner workings of one family, possibly every family, with an often disconcerting clarity (The Times)

If you're a fan of Marilynne Robinson (the Pulitzer-prize winning author of Gilead), you'll love this...a dark and gritty read (Sunday Times)

No one can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as Vickers (Sunday Times)

This is a highly charged novel you'll find hard to put down...The novel raises important issues about motherhood and family connections, and examines the survivor's guilt felt by many of the characters that helps to drive the painful resolution (Sunday Express)

Vickers ponders undercurrents that swirl down the ages...Vickers commitment to the realism required by fictional memoir...a fascinating exploration of the often equivocal and always cryptic nature of family love (Guardian)

A psychologically acute case study (Mail on Sunday)

About the Author:

Salley Vickers is the author of many acclaimed novels including the best-selling Miss Garnet's Angel, Mr Golightly's Holiday, The Other Side of You and The Cleaner of Chartres (Viking 2012) and two short story collections, the latest The Boy Who Could See Death (Viking 2015). She has worked as a cleaner, a dancer, a teacher of children with special needs, a university lecturer and a psychoanalyst. She now writes and lectures full time. Find out more at www.salleyvickers.com or @SalleyVickers.

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