The Small Hours

Boyt, Susie

ISBN 10: 147132513X / ISBN 13: 9781471325137

Published by Paragon, 2013

About this Item

Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 7086500-6

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Small Hours

Publisher: Paragon

Publication Date: 2013

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Very Good

Edition: Large type edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

Harriet Mansfield, brave, wry and handsome, is determined to triumph no matter what. With a decade of therapy under her belt and a new large inheritance, it seems there is nothing she cannot achieve.

So she decides to open the school of her dreams. To her precious little girls, rich in everything but care, she vows to provide the happiest childhoods in the world. For everyone knows that early years passed in delightful ways can set you up for life.

But can this ambitious new departure spill some retrospective sweetness onto Harriet's own harsh beginnings, or better still cancel them out altogether? Will the family she's estranged from ever grant her the recognition she craves?

Written with deep psychological insight and coal-black humour The Small Hours is a stunning meditation on love, self-love and forgiveness, and their shadowy opposites.

Review:

Darkly funny . . . You can't help wishing that everyone was a bit more like Harriet (Emma Herdman Marie Claire)

The Small Hours excites with refined delights . . . Boyt's economical prose remains elegantly polished, her descriptions of the subtleties of psychotherapy spine-tingling . . . A meaty yet accessible novel possessing great psychological rigour (Lucy Beresford Sunday Telegraph)

An unsettling yet absorbing story (Ben Felsenberg Metro)

Boyt weaves an engaging combination of psychological insight and piercing black humour to produce a thoroughly engaging, thought-provoking story (Mel Clarke The Lady)

An exquisitely written tale of a damaged woman attempting to mend her past with a grand gesture (Psychologies magazine)

The Small Hours is an absolute gem of a novel: exquisite, diamond-bright and lacerating to the hardest of hearts (Amanda Craig Literary Review)

Boyt delicately interweaves the revelation of Harriet's past with the unravelling of her present and skilfully leavens the inevitable tragic conclusion with the exuberance and chatter of the girls, who bring as much joy to the reader as their teacher (Michael Arditti Daily Mail)

Boyt has a gift for creating loveable protagonists . . . Boyt has studied Henry James and his stylistic influence is visible, both in the vibrant intensity of Harriet's character and the rich dramatisation of her consciousness (Freya McClelland Independent)

Harriet's pain is clear through the fine mesh of taut and witty prose (A N Wilson Reader's Digest)

A divinely dark book . . . The Small Hours reminds us of the best and the worst of how we treat each other (Jackie McGlone Sunday Herald)

Boyt is a compassionate chronicler of the human heart . . . The point of this novel is not whether your dreams succeed or fail, but whether you're still willing to risk having dreams at all. In Harriet Mansfield, Boyt has drawn a character whose moral and emotional courage is both convincing and heartbreaking (Rebecca Abrams Financial Times)