Mr. Mac and Me - Softcover

Freud, Esther

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1620408856 ISBN 13: 9781620408858

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 2015

Synopsis

It is 1914, and Thomas Maggs, son of the local publican, lives with his parents and sister in a village on the Suffolk coast. He is the youngest child, and the only son surviving. Life is quiet--shaped by the seasons, fishing and farming, the summer visitors, and the girls who come from the Highlands every year to gut and pack the herring.

Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives. To Thomas he looks like a detective in his black cape and felted wool hat, puffing on his pipe like Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him when they whisper about him. And whisper they do, for he sets off on his walks at unlikely hours and stops to examine the humblest flowers. He is seen on the beach, staring out across the waves as if he's searching for clues. But Mac isn't a detective, he's the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and together with his artist wife, they soon become a source of fascination and wonder to Thomas.

Yet just as Thomas and Mac's friendship begins to blossom, war with Germany is declared. The summer guests flee and are replaced by regiments of soldiers, and as the brutality of war weighs increasingly heavily on this coastal community, they become more suspicious of Mac and his curious ways.

In this story of an unlikely friendship, Esther Freud paints a vivid portrait of the home front during World War I, and of a man who was one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation.

About this title

Review:

"A superbly gifted writer . . . ["Lucky Break" is] breezily charming and typically shrewd, and comes with a new satirical edge . . . Freud creates relationships so fraught and delicate that at times the characters themselves can hardly bear to examine them." --"New York Times Book Review" on "Lucky Break""
""Each of [Freud's] beautifully written books creates a fascinating special world." --"Marie Claire" on "Lucky Break""
""[Freud] has [a] talent for burrowing under people's skins, understanding their motivations . . . A book full of subtle and rounded characters . . . "The Sea House" is a sensuous and intelligent novel about love and the traces it leaves." --"Washington Post Book World" on "The Sea House""
""The entire book radiates with the empathy for which Freud is known . . . "Love Falls" is immediate, organic and kind." --"Times Literary Supplement" on "Love Falls"

"A compelling tale beautifully told, "Mr. Mac and Me" is as close to a perfect novel as anything I've read in a long time. I loved every page of it." -Ann Patchett

Evocative Delicately detailed . .. A touching coming-of-age story, powerfully but gracefully infused with a spirit of place, which also pays tribute to a revered artist."

It's a haunting, haunted story, full of ghosts and drownings, disappointments and sadness, but there's a quality of luminous wonder too, captured in Freud's delicate, lyrical prose and the tenderness and warmth of her depictions of the various characters that make up village life. But it is Thomas, mysterious Thomas, and brusque, beleaguered Mac, who glow in this compelling story of art, friendship and war.

Poignant "Mr Mac and Me "is perhaps Freud's finest, most heartfelt book, written in shimmering prose - and that's saying something since . . . she was named, alongside Jeanette Winterson and Kazuo Ishiguro, among others, one of "Granta"'s best young British novelists."

Evocative . . . Delicately detailed . . . A touching coming-of-age story, powerfully but gracefully infused with a spirit of place, which also pays tribute to a revered artist.--starred review "Kirkus Reviews "

"Evocative . . . Delicately detailed . . . A touching coming-of-age story, powerfully but gracefully infused with a spirit of place, which also pays tribute to a revered artist." --"Kirkus Reviews"

"It's a haunting, haunted story, full of ghosts and drownings, disappointments and sadness, but there's a quality of luminous wonder too, captured in Freud's delicate, lyrical prose and the tenderness and warmth of her depictions of the various characters that make up village life. But it is Thomas, mysterious Thomas, and brusque, beleaguered Mac, who glow in this compelling story of art, friendship and war." --"Independent"

"Poignant . . . "Mr Mac and Me "is perhaps Freud's finest, most heartfelt book, written in shimmering prose--and that's saying something since . . . she was named, alongside Jeanette Winterson and Kazuo Ishiguro, among others, one of "Granta"'s best young British novelists." --"Herald"

Evocative . . . Delicately detailed . . . A touching coming-of-age story, powerfully but gracefully infused with a spirit of place, which also pays tribute to a revered artist. "Kirkus Reviews"

It's a haunting, haunted story, full of ghosts and drownings, disappointments and sadness, but there's a quality of luminous wonder too, captured in Freud's delicate, lyrical prose and the tenderness and warmth of her depictions of the various characters that make up village life. But it is Thomas, mysterious Thomas, and brusque, beleaguered Mac, who glow in this compelling story of art, friendship and war. "Independent"

Poignant . . . "Mr Mac and Me "is perhaps Freud's finest, most heartfelt book, written in shimmering prose--and that's saying something since . . . she was named, alongside Jeanette Winterson and Kazuo Ishiguro, among others, one of "Granta"'s best young British novelists. "Herald""

Evocative . . . Delicately detailed . . . A touching coming-of-age story, powerfully but gracefully infused with a spirit of place, which also pays tribute to a revered artist. Kirkus Reviews

It's a haunting, haunted story, full of ghosts and drownings, disappointments and sadness, but there's a quality of luminous wonder too, captured in Freud's delicate, lyrical prose and the tenderness and warmth of her depictions of the various characters that make up village life. But it is Thomas, mysterious Thomas, and brusque, beleaguered Mac, who glow in this compelling story of art, friendship and war. Independent

Poignant . . . Mr Mac and Me is perhaps Freud's finest, most heartfelt book, written in shimmering prose--and that's saying something since . . . she was named, alongside Jeanette Winterson and Kazuo Ishiguro, among others, one of Granta's best young British novelists. Herald

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Book Description:

Set on the Suffolk coastline in 1914, a compelling story of an unlikely friendship from the Granta Best of Young British author of Hideous Kinky and The Sea House

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1620408856
• ISBN 13: 9781620408858
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296