The Reckoning - Softcover

Tyrrell, Patricia

2.9

69 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0297848925 ISBN 13: 9780297848929

Publisher: W&N, 2004

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The novel is set in contemporary America and is narrated by Cate, a teenage girl. Cate has been raised on-the-run by a homeless drifter called Les, who abducted her from a campsite thirteen years before. Over the years, out of a warped sense of responsibility, Les has occasionally telephoned Cate's mother, to update her on her child's progress. But as the novel opens he rings to tell the confused and grieving woman that he is finally bringing her daughter home. Cate has done something so terrible that Les has belatedly understood the moral consequences of his actions years before.

But how will Cate cope with learning to love a mother she can't remember, and with learning to despise the man she has come to consider as her father? And how will her English mother square the memories of her three-year-old daughter with the hard-bitten, cynical, white-trash teenager who turns up on her doorstep?

And what will happen to them both when the awful secret Cate is hiding is brought out into the open?

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Review:

an extraordinary stream-of-consciousness tale. (PUBLISHING NEWS)

The best novel of loss and reunion, truth and reconciliation, that I've read in many a year. Imagine John Grisham meets Alice Sebold. (PAUL BLEZARD)

[it's] a remarkable literary achievement. Cate's voice and character are vivid from the first page and the storytelling is a superbly measured pattern of tension and revelation...This is a finely made, penetrating, intelligent and delightful book. (LAVINIA GREENLAW)

both believing and moving, and there's real tension too... a low-key but powerful character study. (WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY)

This remarkable novel lifts off from a story of archetypal depth: a stolen child, a murder, a man seeking redemptoin and a couple whose grief has frozen them over...Tyrrell's gift is to keep this thing alive and open; she does not contrive meaning or consolation, but brings us a supremely human and intelligent tale. (Lavinia Greenlaw SPECTATOR (12 June 2004))

perceptive, poised and original, THE RECKONING is a fine novel. (Stephanie Cross DAILY MAIL (18.6.04))

Every so often a book of such stunning originality comes along that you find yourself forced to re-evaluate long-held judgements and opinions. THE RECKONING does all this, and more. It's a haunting, thought-provoking and perceptive study of human relationships. (Robert Colbeck YORKSHIRE EVENING POST (19.6.04))

THE RECKONING has an engrossing momentum, its chapters frequently closing at key points in the narrative...Tyrrell's symmetries lend it mythic power, a quality counterbalanced by Cate's vivid, slippery narration. (Stephen Knight TLS (30.7.04))

Where Tyrrell scores is in catching the rhythm of Cate's sympathetic voice. She manages to nail that strange mix of adult knowing and childish need...Cate's journey takes her to emotional maturity, as the best teenage narrations so often do. (Marianne Brace INDEPENDENT (9.8.04))

Book Description:

'The best novel of loss and reunion, truth and reconciliation that I've read in many a year. Imagine John Grisham meets Alice Sebold.' Paul Blezard, Oneword

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