The Widow's Tale - Hardcover

Jackson, Mick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1408486571 ISBN 13: 9781408486573

Publisher: Windsor, 2010

Synopsis

A newly-widowed woman has done a runner. She just jumped in her car, abandoned her (very nice) house in north London and kept on driving until she reached the Norfolk coast. Now she's rented a tiny cottage and holed herself away there, if only to escape the ceaseless sympathy and insincere concern. She's not quite sure, but thinks she may be having a bit of a breakdown. Or perhaps this sense of dislocation is perfectly normal in the circumstances. All she knows is that she can't sleep and may be drinking a little more than she ought to. But as her story unfolds we discover that her marriage was far from perfect. That it was, in fact, full of frustration and disappointment, as well as one or two significant secrets, and that by running away to this particular village she might actually be making her own personal pilgrimage. By turns elegiac and highly comical, "The Widow's Tale" conjures up this most defiantly unapologetic of narrators as she begins to pick over the wreckage of her life and decide what has real value and what she should leave behind. (Large Print Edition)

About this title

Review

`Very funny. You never know this woman's name but, my God, you know her voice ... The Widow's Tale more than equals [Jackson's] astonishing debut. He's back.' --The Times

`It is the widow's vulnerable sassiness that lingers longest in the memory. Jackson delights in detailing her anxieties and obsessions ... weaving them into a thoroughly convincing and often very funny emotional portrait.' --Sunday Telegraph

`Finely-judged ... her Tale perfectly captures the disorientation that comes with grief and brings it to life against the big skies, grainy light and salt tang of an east coast winter.' --Guardian

`Likeable, believable and often funny ... the book is about coping with the everyday rather than the miraculous. Perhaps it is all the braver for it.' --Daily Telegraph

`Jackson's widow, with her tart observations about life and men, is great company. Like a glass of spicy red wine, this is a book to swig back and enjoy.'
--Daily Mail

Book Description

The Widow's Tale by Mick Jackson is the long awaited third novel from the Booker Prize shortlisted author of Five Boys and The Underground Man.

Edition details

• Publisher: Windsor
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1408486571
• ISBN 13: 9781408486573
• Binding: Hardcover