Synopses & Reviews
A vibrant new novel from Penelope Lively—a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect
When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends.
Through a richly conceived and colorful cast of characters, Penelope Lively explores the powerful role of chance in people's lives and deftly illustrates how our paths can be altered irrevocably by someone we will never even meet. Brought to life in her hallmark graceful prose and full of keen insights into human nature, How It All Began is an engaging, contemporary tale that is sure to strike a chord with her legion of loyal fans as well as new readers. A writer of rare wisdom, elegance, and humor, Lively is a consummate storyteller whose gifts are on full display in this masterful work.
Review
"Lively is always a discerning, keenly intelligent writer." Publishers Weekly
Review
"As lovely but lonely Kath comes into ever sharper focus through the lens of each character's increasingly stressed consciousness, Lively offers provocative musings on work, obsession, the burden of beauty, alienation of affections, and the endless longing for love." Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"An amazing novel..." The San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Penelope Lively's engaging new novel, The Photograph, is a testament to the virtues of lightness....[H]er method is subtraction, lightness, the quick, telling stroke....Lively tempers sprightly enthusiasm with perfect command of the form." Valerie Martin, The New York Times
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"The Photograph is one of Lively's most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity." The Washington Post
Synopsis
Look out for Penelope Lively s new book, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories.
Man Booker Prize winning novelist Penelope Lively s latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked DON T OPEN DESTROY. But Kath s husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.
Propelled by the author s signature mastery of narrative and psychology, The Photograph is Lively at her very best, the dazzling climax to all she has written before."
Synopsis
A seductive and hugely suspenseful novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively, about what can happen when you look too closely into the past Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Penelope Lively's masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked "DON'T OPEN--DESTROY." But Kath's husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets--within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her--and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.
Propelled by the author's signature mastery of narrative and psychology, The Photograph is Lively at her very best.
Synopsis
With Lively's signature mastery of narrative and psychology, "The Photograph" explores a woman's beauty and its threat to her own happiness, the rivalry of sisters, a marriage in supreme crisis, and the cost of professional success as life unfolds.
Synopsis
Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively is a grande dame of British letters whose novels have attracted readers of Ian McEwan and Iris Murdoch, as well as those enthralled by her insight into relationships and family.
The Photograph brings her talents into a whole new realm. Now, bestselling author Alice Hoffman has picked Lively's magnificent work as this month's
Today Book Club pick.
The Photograph opens with a snapshot: a young woman, Kath, at an unknown gathering, hands clasped with a man not her husband, their backs to the camera. Its envelope is marked "Do not open destroy." But Kath's husband, Glyn, does not heed the warning. The mystery of the photograph, and of Kath herself and her recent death, propels him on a journey of discovery that sends shock waves through the lives of her family and friends.
With Lively's signature mastery of narrative and psychology, The Photograph explores issues that extend far beyond its London suburban setting: a woman's beauty and its collision with her own happiness, sisters' rivalry and lovers' cooling, a marriage in supreme crisis, and the cost of professional "success" as life unfolds. It is Penelope Lively at her very best, the dazzling and intriguing climax to all she has written before.
Synopsis
Man Booker Prize–winning novelist Penelope Lively’s latest masterpiece opens with a snapshot: Kath, before her death, at an unknown gathering, holding hands with a man who is not her husband. The photograph is in an envelope marked “DON’T OPEN—DESTROY.” But Kath’s husband does not heed the warning, embarking on a journey of discovery that reveals a tight web of secrets—within marriages, between sisters, and at the heart of an affair. Kath, with her mesmerizing looks and casual ways, moves like a ghost through the memories of everyone who knew her—and a portrait emerges of a woman whose life cannot be understood without plumbing the emotional depths of the people she touched.
Propelled by the author’s signature mastery of narrative and psychology, The Photograph is Lively at her very best, the dazzling climax to all she has written before.
Synopsis
Rare personal reflections from one of our most talented writers” (The New York Times Book Review) Memory and history have been Penelope Livelys terrain in fiction throughout a career that has spanned five decades. In this funny, smart, and poignant” (Los Angeles Times) memoir, she offers a glimpse into her influences and formative years, as well as a view of what life looks like from the vantage point of eighty years. Lively traces the arc of her own life, from early childhood in Cairo to boarding school in England to the sweeping social changes of Britains twentieth century. She reflects on her early love of archaeology, and on the fragments of the ancients that have accompanied her journey. She also takes an intimate look back at a life devoted to books and writes insightfully about aging.
About the Author
Penelope Lively is the author of numerous award-winning novels as well as many works of nonfiction, including A House Unlocked, and children's books. Her short stories have appeared in many periodicals. Born in Egypt, she has spent most of her life in England and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.