Books
by Esther Freud
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Gaglow |
Germany, 1914: it is the shared birthday of Eva and her brother Emanuel, eleven years older. So begins a complex tale of a Jewish family, their governess Schu-Schu and Gaglow their country house interspersed with the story of their modern-day descendant Sarah, an unmarried mother who is posing for her father, a painter who has severed all links with the past. Lucidly written with vividly drawn characters, the story never fails to intrigue.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Hideous Kinky |
Fictionalised, autobiographical account of a year spent with a hippy mother in and around Marrakesh, from the point of view of the child. Fascinating, touching, often funny, more often (for more orthodox parents) hair-raising. Don't be put off by the title or the first few pages.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 2 March 2000) |
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I Couldn't Love You More |
Mothers, daughters, betrayals and secrets - three generations seeking to find what they have lost. Aoife waits in Ireland for news of her daughter; Rosaleen in 60's London is bewitched by a famous sculptor; Kate's trail leads to a forbidding convent in Co. Cork where fallen women come to have their babies. Freud has drawn on her own family's history to write another involving read and amongst those censorious nuns she does allow one humble soul to have compassion.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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Mr Mac and Me |
Suffolk, WW I is about to begin: 13-year old Thomas Maggs is lame, his publican father a drunk; he has two sisters but all his brothers have died, their souls the starlings flying high over the churchyard. To his isolated coastal village comes a mysterious Scotsman and his beautiful wife. He is Charles Rennie Mackintosh; is he harmless; is he a spy? Freud using language like a painter's brush brings the characters and landscape vividly to life.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 87 Autumn 2018) |
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The Sea House |
Set in East Anglia, Lily comes to the village of Steerborough to research the life and work of architect Klaus Lehmann who died there in the fifties. The story switches back and forth in time between the now and then and as the past gradually reveals its secrets, the present-day characters re-assess their own lives. It's a meandering, complex novel, very evocative of time and place. Perfect for lazy summer days - if you have any!
(Jenny Baker - bwl 24 June 2004) |
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The Wild |
Francine and her children rent rooms from the hopelessly idealistic William and his girls, forming a sometimes idyllic but ultimately doomed ménage. Complicating matters are ex-spouses on both sides, unpredictable pets, seething adolescents and a shotgun. All the characters are interesting, there isn't a single cliché and no scene is overindulged. A gripping, very skilful, sometimes heart-rending warning of how confused and vulnerable (but ultimately resilient) children can be among all-too-human adults.
(Victoria Grey-Edwards - bwl 28 February 2005) |
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