Falling - Softcover

Howard, Elizabeth Jane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0333782836 ISBN 13: 9780333782835

Publisher: Pan Books, 1999

Synopsis

PAPERBACK - Good personal reading copy. Some creasing and other signs of handling/storage. Pages clean and in good condition.

About this title

Review:

To the delight of her many readers, Elizabeth Jane Howard has been producing prose of a subtlety, intelligence and feeling that has rarely faltered during the 50 years she has been writing. She is able to successfully straddle the disparate worlds of the popular and literary novel and this new book is among her most accomplished. Choosing a cynical and compromised first- person narrator, Howard introduces us to Henry Kent--a man looking for a woman--preferably one with a little money. Henry, in late middle age, is living without means on a dank houseboat. Getting by on his charm is no longer feasible and when writer Daisy Langrish buys a cottage close by, he sets his sights on her. But those around Daisy--her agent, her daughter--begin to ask questions about him. And the revelations they uncover have them very worried indeed. With a tone reminiscent of William Trevor, this is Howard at her most psychologically perceptive: her subject here is nothing less than an ambitious exploration of love, dealing in a dispassionate way with both the joys and the dangers. She demonstrates that the need to be first in someone's affections is a seductive but risky business and her powerful rendering of human emotion has the same scalpel-like precision as The Cazalet Chronicle. Many regard the latter as Howard's finest book, but this new volume is likely to change perceptions. Henry is fascinatingly characterised (we are allowed a nicely ambiguous attitude to him) and the slow but assured unwinding of the narrative grips with memorable force. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

Completely unputdownable. (Independent)

A superb storyteller whose elegantly written novels never fail to pull you in... she tells a taut and compelling story with a subtle build-up of tension that will keep the reader worrying till the end. (Sunday Express)

An engaging study of love which explores our deepest needs and desires. (Tatler)

I found myself seduced by her clever evocation of people and places, her perfect ear for dialogue and her elegant, sensitive portrayal of contemporary life. (Sunday Telegraph)

A novel which, although full of subtle touches, is as unputdownable as any thriller. (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0333782836
• ISBN 13: 9780333782835
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 375