Rough Music: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) - Softcover

Gale, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345442377 ISBN 13: 9780345442376

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2002

Synopsis

Beautifully written and deeply compassionate, Rough Music is a novel of one family at two defining points in time. Seamlessly alternating between the present day and a summer thirty years past, its twin stories unfold at a cottage along the eastern coast of England. Will Pagett receives an unexpected gift on his fortieth birthday, two weeks at a perfect beach house in Cornwall. Seeking some distance from the married man with whom he's having an affair, he invites his aging mother and father to share his holiday, knowing the sun and sea will be a welcome change for. But the cottage and the stretch of sand before it seem somehow familiar and memories of a summer long ago begin to surface. Thirty-two years earlier. A young married couple and their eight year-old son begin two idyllic weeks at a beach house in Cornwall. But the sudden arrival of unknown American relatives has devastating consequences, turning what was to be a moment of reconciliation into an act of betrayal that will cast a lengthy shadow. As Patrick Gale masterfully unspools these parallel stories, we see their subtle and surprising reflections in each other and discover how the forgotten dramas of childhood are reenacted throughout our lives. Deftly navigating the terrain between humor and tragedy, Patrick Gale has written an unforgettable novel about the lies that adults tell and the small acts of treason that children can commit. Rough Music gracefully illuminates the merciful tricks of memory and the courage with which we continue to assert our belief in love and happiness. From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

Review:

'Like the sea he describes so well, Patrick Gale's clear, unforced prose sucks one in effortlessly ... he is excellent at the telling detail and description.' Elizabeth Buchan, Daily Mail

'There are no false notes in this book.' Marie Claire

'Rough Music ... is an astute, sensitive and at times tragically uncomfortable meditation on sex, lies and family.... a fabulously unnerving book... a hugely compelling writer.' Independent on Sunday

'It would be churlish to divulge more of the plot, suffice to say that it is as ingenious in design as it is generous in spirit.' Sunday Express

‘Patrick Gale's novels grip tightly, like swaddling clothes, stunning the reader into a state of lolling, contented absorption. How does he do it?' TLS

'Rough Music, like its predecessors, belongs to a broad canon of works by English rural moralists. Think Austen, Hardy or Murdoch ... His plots – seemingly effortless, but closely structured – resemble Iris Murdoch's ... Gripping, elegant and wise, it is Gale's best book to date, and should not be missed.' The Weekend Review, Independent

Book Description:

'Sparkling with emotional intelligence. A gripping portrait of a marriage and quiet, devastating fall-out of family life' Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0345442377
• ISBN 13: 9780345442376
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384