Next to Love - Softcover

Feldman, Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330544500 ISBN 13: 9780330544504

Publisher: Picador, 2011

Synopsis

Babe, Grace and Millie have been best friends since their first day at their small town’s only kindergarten. Despite their differences, they’ve played together, grown up together, shared each other’s secrets. And when World War Two becomes a reality for America too, the girls begin a new phase of their lives together – each quickly marries her first true love. With the men away, life is difficult for these newly married women, but when no fewer than sixteen telegrams arrive on a single morning in 1944, bearing news of the worst kind from the War Department, the girls know that nothing will ever be the same again . . .

As each woman struggles to rebuild a life, they face not only the challenges closest to home – the brutal effects of war, the question of remarriage, of how to tell a child about their absent father – but also the wider issues of a country in flux – sexism, racism, anti-Semitism. Tinged with tragedy, yet filled with hope, Next to Love is the story of three women at the heart of the century – a celebration of their friendship across decades of the most unthinkable adversity. It is a remarkable novel you are unlikely to forget.

About this title

Review

`Feldman's writing is accessible, poignant and polished. She also sensitively tackles some contemporary issues as we follow these three women, including racism, sexism and anti-Semitism, as well as the brutal effects of a War on a generation of women as well as their families.' --Bookbag

'Three women, friends from childhood, wave their husbands off to war. Left behind, they must find ways to live through the subsequent tragic and turbulent years as they, their children and their country change. Remarkable and haunting.'
--Woman & Home

`The novel offers a heartbreaking triptych of people scrambling to cope with life.' --Sunday Telegraph

`This is a highly engaging tale of human endurance mingled with human fragility, and most importantly, the strength and courage derived from female friendship in the face of tragedy.' --Image magazine

'A moving saga of love and loss in the aftermath of war.' --Choice

`Beautifully written in rather poetic language, while being populated with complex, very real characters.' --Press Association

'The Second World War has drastically altered the lives of Babe, Grace and Millie. Each has married her first true love then watched them leave to fight. When 16 telegrams arrive at once they know that the heady and care-free days of post-war America will never return.'
--Daily Express

`Intelligent, elegant and...moving' --Guardian

`Feldman writes beautifully about the women's progress from the darkest of times towards new lives. The small town is depicted as being claustrophobic but even it is not immune to the changing winds that the Civil Rights Movement, the sexual revolution and the coming Vietnam War will bring and the women deal with these changes in different ways. Her characters are vivid and believable - their lives at the same time small and hugely meaningful. I thoroughly enjoyed this book that says so much about changing times in such an understated way and throws light on those who stayed behind from war, but were no less heroic.' --Bookgeeks.co.uk

`As each woman struggles to rebuild a life, they face not only the challenges closest to home - the brutal effects of war, the question of remarriage, of how to tell a child about their absent father - but also the wider issues of a country in flux - sexism, racism, anti-Semitism. Tinged with tragedy, yet filled with hope, Next to Love is the story of three women at the heart of the century - a celebration of their friendship across decades of the most unthinkable adversity. It is a remarkable novel you are unlikely to forget.' --Artswrap.co.uk

Book Description

From the Orange Prize Shortlisted author of Scottsboro comes a heartbreaking saga of love and loss in the aftermath of war

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0330544500
• ISBN 13: 9780330544504
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304