Book description
A sequel to one of Lessing's most celebrated novels, 'The Fifth Child'.
Many will recall the powerful impact 'The Fifth Child', Doris Lessing's
1988 novel, made on publication. Its account of idyllic marital and
parental bliss irredeemably shattered by the arrival of the feral fifth
child of the Lovatts made for unnerving and compulsive reading. That
child, Ben, now grown to legal maturity, is the central character of
this sequel, which picks up the fable at the end of his childhood and
takes our primal, misunderstood, maladjusted teenager out into the
world, where again he meets mostly with mockery, fear and
incomprehension but with just enough kindness and openness to keep him
afloat as his adventures take him from London to the south of France and
on to South America in his restless quest for community, companionship
and peace.
Doris Lessing, in this book, employs a plain, unadorned prose fit for
fables; again, we have a childlike perspective at the heart of the book;
again, the world in all its malevolence and misapprehenison swirls
around at the edge, while, occasionally, a strong character steps
forward to try to stake out some values and practise some good
behaviour. 'A wonderful novel, flawless as a black pearl.' Daily Mail
'Outstanding…A tour de force that poses stark questions about
modern-day Britain and what it is to be human.' Sunday Times
'“Ben, In the World” is huge in scope, humanity and pathos. Lessing
created a monster; her triumph is that he not only personifies the human
yearning to belong, but that we also come to love him.' Shena Mackay,
Daily Telegraph Doris Lessing was the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize
for Literature and is one of the most important writers of the second
half of the twentieth century. Her first novel, 'The Grass is Singing'
was published in 1950, and since then her international reputation has
flourished. Among her other celebrated novels are 'The Golden Notebook',
'The Summer Before the Dark', and 'Memoirs of a Survivor'. Her most
recent works include two volumes of autobiography, 'Under my Skin' and
'Walking in the Shade', her most recent novel is 'The Cleft'.
