The Republic of Love - Softcover

Shields, Carol

3.74

2,859 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841154679 ISBN 13: 9781841154671

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2003

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‘“The Republic of Love” marries a wide diversity of elements, mythical and modern, ironic and moving, exhilarating and melancholy...a love-surveying story that is enticingly seductive.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘“The Republic of Love” is a hymn to the pleasures and pains, the raptures even of an unspectacular life. Fay discovers that happiness is “a kind of by-product of existence, and not an end in itself”. This piece of knowledge saves her, Shields suggests, from the watery, ambiguous yearning of the mermaid, “plaintive, coy”, wordlessly calling out to no one. A simple message, but Shields delivers it with so much grace and so little pretension, that it is impossible not to be enchanted by her voice. She sings with the charm of a true siren. In her hands, we believe, anything can happen.’ Guardian

‘A novel that’s so engrossing it makes you want to retire to a squashy sofa until you reach the end. Vividly fresh...glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises.’ Sunday Times

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Review:

‘A novel that’s so engrossing it makes you want to retire to a squashy sofa until you reach the end. Vividly fresh...glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises.’ Sunday Times

From the Back Cover:

"A novel that's so engrossing it makes you want to retire to a squashy sofa until you reach the end. Vividly fresh, glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises."
'Sunday Times'

Fay is a folklorist whose passion for mermaids provides her with a sense of continuity with the past. But is she in danger of using her passions to escape the present, of forsaking spontaneity for security? Tom is the host of a late-night radio show. Married and divorced three times before his fortieth birthday, he nevertheless hopes that next time around he will at last make the right choice.

"A hymn to the pleasures and pains, the raptures even of an unspectacular life. Shields sings with the charm of a true siren. In her hands, we believe, anything can happen."
'Guardian'

"Mythical and modern, ironic and moving, exhilarating and melancholy. A love-surveying love story that is enticingly seductive."
'Times Literary Supplement'

"Perfect fairy-tale material."
'Daily Telegraph'

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