Book description
From the double Man Booker prize-winning author of 'Wolf Hall', this is
an epic yet subtle family saga about broken trusts and buried secrets.
Ralph and Anna Eldred live in the big Red House in Norfolk, raising
their four children and devoting their lives to charity. The constant
flood of 'good souls and sad cases', children plucked from the squalor
of the East London streets for a breath of fresh countryside air, hides
the growing crises in their own family, the disillusionment of their
children, the fissures in their marriage. Memories of their time as
missionaries in South Africa and Botswana, of the terrible African
tragedies that have shaped the rest of their lives, refuse to be put to
rest and threaten to destroy the fragile peace they have built for
themselves and their children.
This is a breathtakingly intelligent novel that asks the most difficult
questions. Is there anything one can never forgive? Is tragedy ever
deserved? Can you ever escape your own past? A literary family saga
written with the skill and subtlety of a true master, this is Hilary
Mantel at her best. 'A beautifully crafted novel' Guardian
'There are very few novels that not only bristle with ideas but leave
you asking questions about those ideas, again and again, your world
turned upside down. Mantel has managed to do this.' Sunday Times
'The best book she's written … She writes about punishing subjects so
freshly it is as if they had never been written about before.' Observer
'It has the tension of a first-rate thriller and the breadth of a
family saga … Its compassion and its intellectual energy mark her as the
novelist of her generation who will achieve a lasting greatness.'
Literary Review
'A complex and highly intelligent portrayal of injustice, bereavement
and the loss of faith … Hilary Mantel has created that rare thing, a
page-turner with a profound moral dimension.' Daily Telegraph
'A work of exquisite craftsmanship that asks enormous questions.'
Independent Hilary Mantel is the author of thirteen books , including
A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY, BEYOND BLACK, and the memoir GIVING UP THE
GHOST. Her two most recent novels, WOLF HALL and its sequel BRING UP THE
BODIES have both been awarded The Man Booker Prize - an unprecedented
achievement.
