Synopses & Reviews
An Irresponsible Age, Lavinia Greenlaw's extraordinary new novel, is set in London in 1990, with Thatcher still in power but the country unwilling to 'abandon an idea just because it proved to be a bad one'. In these hesitant times we follow the life of Juliet Clough and her three siblings, all of them interdependent in a not-quite enviable way, clinging together after the death of a brother and the retreat of their grieving parents. When Juliet, the focus of them all, is drawn into a complex love affair with the enigmatic Jacob, the others, too, find themselves falling in love, and then evading the consequences. None will admit what they are doing, or why.
Review
"There's more than a whiff of Cold Comfort Farm hanging over this elegant novel." Daily Mail
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"An engrossing and thought-provoking read." Sunday Telegraph
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"A subtle and intriguing novel." Observer
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"A terrific book, a meteorological force in its own right . . . absorbing and beautifully observed." Evening Standard
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"Made plausible by the brilliance of the writing . . . Greenlaw superbly brings to life her characters' inner life and their perceptions of their world." Financial Times
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"A piece of ice in the eye, chilling and disturbing, a beautiful portrait of ordinary unhappiness at its best." Irish Times
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"Gifted with a sharp eye for detail and a fine sensibility to verbal nuance and patterning, Greenlaw has already established herself as a significant force in British poetry. This new novel seems certain to confirm her developing reputation as a writer of lively, intelligent and well-crafted fiction." Guardian
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"Greenlaw's luminous prose is spare, clinical, sharp enough to dissect characters and scrape away the surface of England in 1990 to reveal a hollow age, yearning to be real before it can be responsible." Daily Telegraph
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"Lavinia Greenlaw shows she can cut the mustard as a novelist in this nicely understated 'tragedy of manners'." Sunday Telegraph
Synopsis
Set in London in 1990, with Thatcher still in power, Juliet Clough and her threeinterdependent siblings, cling together after the death of a brother and the retreat of their grieving parents. When Juliet, the focus of them all, is drawn into a complex love affair with the enigmatic Jacob, the others, too, find themselves falling in love, and then evading the consequences.
Synopsis
A powerful, involving new novel, following on from the author's much-praised debut novel 'Mary George of Allnorthover'.
'An Irresponsible Age', Lavinia Greenlaw's extraordinary new novel, is set in London in 1990, with Thatcher still in power but the country unwilling to 'abandon an idea just because it proved to be a bad one'. In these hesitant times we follow the life of Juliet Clough and her three siblings, all of them interdependent in a not-quite enviable way, clinging together after the death of a brother and the retreat of their grieving parents. When Juliet, the focus of them all, is drawn into a complex love affair with the enigmatic Jacob, the others, too, find themselves falling in love, and then evading the consequences. None will admit what they are doing, or why.
About the Author
Lavinia Greenlaw has published three books of poems, including Minsk, which was shortlisted for the Forward, T.S. Eliot, and Whitbread poetry awards. She is also the author of the novel Mary George of Allnorthover.