Disputed Land - Hardcover

Pears, Tim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0434020818 ISBN 13: 9780434020812

Publisher: William Heinemann, 2011

Synopsis

Leonard and Rosemary Cannon summon their middle-aged offspring, along with partners and children, to the family home in the Welsh Marches for the Christmas holiday. As the gathered family settle in to their first Christmas together for some years, the grown siblings - Rodney, Johnny and Gwen - are surprised when they are invited to each put stickers on the furniture and items they wish to inherit from their parents.

Disputed Land is narrated by Leonard and Rosemary's thirteen-year-old grandson, Theo, who observes how from these innocent beginnings age-old fissures open up in the relationships of those around him. Looking back at this Christmas gathering from his own middle-age - a narrator at once nostalgic and naïve - Theo Cannon remembers his imperious grandmother Rosemary, alpha-male uncle Johnny, abominable twin cousins Xan and Baz; he recalls his love for his grandfather Leonard and the burgeoning feelings for his cousin Holly. And he asks himself the question: if a single family cannot solve the problem of what it bequeaths to future generations, then what chance does a whole society have of leaving the world intact?

About this title

Review:

"Very sympathetic, intelligent and moving ... Pears's depiction of enduring married love is beautifully done...All the characters are sufficiently imagined to come convincingly to life ... Pears is so adept at the illuminating detail, writes so beautifully of the pleasures of life ... it is a warm and affirmative novel, one which offers incidental joys on every page. It is perhaps the finest book he has written yet." (Allan Massie The Scotsman)

"Packs a real emotional punch...Pears, who could not write an ugly sentence if he tried, has done more than paint a gallery of eccentrics. His portrait of a family at a time of change is also a lament for a country which is losing its environmental way." (Mail on Sunday)

"'Delightful...Pears has terrific fun with his cast and is highly skilled at drawing out foibles and grudges...strong (and in places satirical) narratives underpinned by explicit ethical concerns...Ultimately, it is the myopia of this profligate existence, recalled with Theo's voice of youthful naivety, that gives this novel heft and weight, and a curiously nostalgic tone.'" (James Urquhart Independent)

"Happily allows Pears to stick to his familiar strengths, including a careful eye for family relationships and an unfashionable love for rural settings. The narrator's voice is also such a rich mixture of Theo's younger and older selves that the effect is not merely nostalgic, but a thorough examination of nostalgia itself." (Daily Mail)

Book Description:

The breathtaking new novel from Tim Pears, author of Landed

About this edition

• Publisher: William Heinemann
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0434020818
• ISBN 13: 9780434020812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224