Synopses & Reviews
“Beautifully packed with detail . . . Does for Bangladesh what Rushdie did for India.” —The Sunday TimesFrom the Man Booker-short-listed author of The Northern Clemency, a family and a nation—Bangladesh—are forged through storytelling, conversation, jokes, feuds, blood, songs, bravery, and sacrifice.
In late 1970 a boy named Saadi is born into a large, defiantly Bengali family in eastern Pakistan. Months later the country splits in two in what will become one of the most ferocious twentieth-century civil wars. Saadi tells the story of his childhood and of the ingenious ways his family survived the violence and conflicts: from his aunts stuffing him with sweets to stop marauding soldiers from hearing him cry, to street games based on American television shows; from the basement compartment his grandfather built to hide his treasured books, pictures, and music until after the war, to the daily gossip about each and every one of the relatives, servants, and neighbors. Scenes from Early Life is a beautifully detailed novel of profound empathy—an attempt to capture the collective memory of a family and a country.
At once heartbreaking and surprisingly funny, Scenes from Early Life is based on the life of Philip Henshers husband, and as such it is at once a memoir, a novel, and a history. As this remarkable writer brings the past to life, we come to feel, vividly and viscerally, that Saadis family—and its struggles and triumphs—are our own.
Review
Praise for
Scenes from Early Life "Scenes from Early Life is a triumph, an astonishing feat of empathy and narrative virtuosity. It deserves to be garlanded with many prizes, and nowhere more so than in the Indian subcontinent." —Amitav Ghosh, author of River of Smoke and Sea of Poppies
"[Hensher] does for Bangladesh what Salman Rushdie did for India with Midnights Children." —Phil Baker, The Sunday Times (London)
"Hensher has created a greater thing than just a record of childhood, or war. It probably isnt Zaveds story anymore, but its great just the same." —Bella Bathurst, The Observer
"One of the most delightful and engaging descriptions of family life to have been published for many years . . . Saturated with gentleness, humour and affection." —Amanda Craig, The Independent on Sunday
"Hensher proves himself a literary god of small things, from chillies drying on [Saadis] grandfathers balcony to the oppressive clutter of Saadis parents first marital home . . . As this book movingly shows, appropriation is sometimes an act of love." —Adrian Turpin, Financial Times
"A richly depicted saga of childhood joys and sorrows . . . This is [Henshers] most purely pleasurable novel to date." —Michael Arditti, The Daily Mail
"A book suffused with tenderness, yet altogether free from sentimentality. One feels the writing has been a labour of love. Perhaps this is why the experience of reading it is so delightful." —Allan Massie, The Scotsman
Review
“A singular accomplishment.” —
Boston Globe “Powerfully bewitching.” — Los Angeles Times
“Funny, touching, wise.” — Washington Post
Synopsis
Beautifully packed with detail . . . Does for Bangladesh what Rushdie did for India. --The Sunday Times
From the Man Booker-short-listed author of The Northern Clemency, a family and a nation--Bangladesh--are forged through storytelling, conversation, jokes, feuds, blood, songs, bravery, and sacrifice.
In late 1970 a boy named Saadi is born into a large, defiantly Bengali family in eastern Pakistan. Months later the country splits in two in what will become one of the most ferocious twentieth-century civil wars. Saadi tells the story of his childhood and of the ingenious ways his family survived the violence and conflicts: from his aunts stuffing him with sweets to stop marauding soldiers from hearing him cry, to street games based on American television shows; from the basement compartment his grandfather built to hide his treasured books, pictures, and music until after the war, to the daily gossip about each and every one of the relatives, servants, and neighbors. Scenes from Early Life is a beautifully detailed novel of profound empathy--an attempt to capture the collective memory of a family and a country.
At once heartbreaking and surprisingly funny, Scenes from Early Life is based on the life of Philip Hensher's husband, and as such it is at once a memoir, a novel, and a history. As this remarkable writer brings the past to life, we come to feel, vividly and viscerally, that Saadi's family--and its struggles and triumphs--are our own.
Synopsis
At Cambridge University in 1912, a physics student crashes into a beautiful young nurse on his bicycle. When they awake in the same bed they are left to ponder whether this was simply a random accident or perhaps something greater. Featuring an introduction by Philip Hensher.
Synopsis
Short-listed for the Booker Prize. “A singular accomplishment.” — Boston Globe
“Powerfully bewitching.” — Los Angeles Times
In 1912, rational Fred Fairly, one of Cambridge’s best and brightest, crashes his bike and wakes up in bed with a stranger — fellow casualty Daisy Saunders, a charming, pretty, generous working-class nurse. So begins a series of complications — not only of the heart but also of the head — as Fred and Daisy take up each other’s education and turn each other’s philosophies upside down.
This new edition features an introduction by Philip Hensher, author of Scenes from Early Life, along with new cover art.
About the Author
PENELOPE FITZGERALD wrote many books small in size but enormous in popular and critical acclaim over the past two decades. Over 300,000 copies of her novels are in print, and profiles of her life appeared in both The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. In 1979, her novel Offshore won Britain's Booker Prize, and in 1998 she won the National Book Critics Circle Prize for The Blue Flower. Though Fitzgerald embarked on her literary career when she was in her 60's, her career was praised as "the best argument.. for a publishing debut made late in life" (New York Times Book Review). She told the New York Times Magazine, "In all that time, I could have written books and I didn’t. I think you can write at any time of your life." Dinitia Smith, in her New York Times Obituary of May 3, 2000, quoted Penelope Fitzgerald from 1998 as saying, "I have remained true to my deepest convictions, I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy, for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?"