Books
by Andrew Miller
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Now We Shall Be Entirely Free |
The defeated English retreat from their disastrous Spanish campaign against Napoleon, among them Captain Lacroix haunted by memories of a village massacre; rather than rejoining his regiment he flees to the Hebrides, unaware an English corporal and a Spanish officer are in pursuit. We follow the hunted and the hunters from island to island as Lacroix finds some sort of redemption and gradually we learn the truth. Written in such vivid, luminous prose that the past becomes as immediate as the present day.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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Oxygen |
Alice Valentine is dying in England. Her sons, Alec, a self-diagnosed failure, and Larry, a falling star, return home to care for her. In Paris, the life of Laszlo Lazar, a Hungarian exile whose play Alec is translating, is marred only by his sense of having betrayed a comrade forty years before. In an evocative, witty, at times claustrophobic book, they play out their deftly paralleled stories, each struggling in his own way to draw breath....
(Siobhan Thomson - bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Pure |
In 1785 young provincial engineer Baratte is charged with clearing a stinking, overcrowded cemetery in Paris. With a team of taciturn Normandy miners and his erstwhile friend from home the task seems straightforward for a modern man of reason. But together with bones, underlying passions are unearthed and 'reason' balances on a knife edge with violence. Tangibly atmospheric, hauntingly compelling and written in beautiful, lucid prose, I found it utterly bewitching.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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The Crossing |
The story stems from Tim's love for enigmatic Maud, a fellow sailing enthusiast, but she is aloof even to us, and neither character seems sympathetic. Their relationship is precarious, and then a traumatic event drives her to set off alone in their yacht - for me the most enjoyable and rewarding section. Improbably, she is later washed up near an isolated community where she starts to heal. Interesting - it makes us question our own reactions and relationships.
(Victoria Grey-Edwards - bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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