Hand Me Down World
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Product Description
Review
Compelling . . . vivid . . . intense . . . one of the most significant novelists writing today
(Sunday Times )Humane and moving, it's a worthy successor to Jones's last novel, the Booker-shortlisted Mister Pip
(Daily Mail )Artfully constructed and delicately nuanced . . . Hand Me Down World has an eerie compulsion
(D J Taylor, Financial Times )Everyone will want to read Hand Me Down World and few will be able to stop thinking about it after they do
(Irish Independent )The novel's readability belies its great depth . . . Jones's novel is haunting to the very final line
(Sunday Telegraph )This is, to make a bold claim, an extraordinary novel . . . Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today
(Joanna Briscoe, Guardian )'A haunting tale of a mother's search for her only child'
(The Times )'Gripping . . . Jones subtly dramatises this crucial ethical dilemma with strong characters. Vulnerable and abused, the woman holds the reader's sympathy yet repays almost every kindness with theft and betrayal. Jones artfully builds these contradictory impulses into richly textured layers to create a compelling narrative and an absorbing disquisition on relative morality and justice' (FT )
'A startling novel'
(Guardian )Product Description
Sometimes a person passes through your world and you don't forget them.
She is like that.
She is crossing continents, searching for her missing child.
Everyone she comes into contact with has a tale to tell: the truck driver who mistook her for a prostitute, the hunters who almost shot her, the Frenchman who loved her, the blind man and the lodger.
This is her story.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've never read a Lloyd Jones book and started to read Hand Me Down World about the same time as I heard an interview with him on Radio Four's Front Row. It was interesting to hear him talk about his approach to telling the story of Ines (as we know her) through the eyes of others whom she meets on her journey. I've never read a book like this before.
The story essentially revolves around a hotel maid/supervisor who is working at an upmarket hotel in Tunisia when she's swept off her feet in love with a German tourist. She soon becomes pregnant and living in a bubble of happiness, does not foresee she's been used and that her baby will be 'taken from her breast' and trafficked back to Europe. So her journey begins as an illegal immigrant, firstly landing in Sicily and takes her up to Berlin where she seeks her baby. What her plans are after she locates him she does not know.
Her journey up through Europe is recounted by the people whom she meets, who she sometimes steals from, hitchhikes with, who beat her, pity her, give her kindness and money. These are eyes that we are forced to see Ines through whether we like the storyteller or not. Their versions of the 'truth' to who they see Ines as are sometimes, uncomfortable, grotesque and occasionally heart warming. Ines could be as faceless and separate as any of the migrants we read about and this approach challenges the reader to review their own attitude to the character.
The majority of Ines's story is told from the perspective of Defoe (as he is known; no one can ever quite be trusted) who observes Ines during her employment as a carer for a blind man in Berlin. He sees a remote woman with the private motivations which he experiences alongside the emotional and selfish entanglement he finds himself in between her and her employer.
It's not until the final section of the book that we hear from Ines. The reader has been backed into a corner full of dispassion and shock at her actions because her motives and emotions are hidden from those she interacts with. So when Ines finally tells her story, from the moment she leaves Tunisia, the reader feels the jigsaw starting to fit together to conjure a narrative far richer and emotionally conflicting than is comfortable. The end was quite gentle, really moving yet credible so the story felt like it had a future beyond the Jones' narrative.
Hand Me Down World is a book which will stay with me for some time. Snatches of the narrative require more thought than books usually garner, so easily closed and forgotten when you reach the end. Jones is a story teller of great skill; I'll be looking out for more of his award winning writing.
The story essentially revolves around a hotel maid/supervisor who is working at an upmarket hotel in Tunisia when she's swept off her feet in love with a German tourist. She soon becomes pregnant and living in a bubble of happiness, does not foresee she's been used and that her baby will be 'taken from her breast' and trafficked back to Europe. So her journey begins as an illegal immigrant, firstly landing in Sicily and takes her up to Berlin where she seeks her baby. What her plans are after she locates him she does not know.
Her journey up through Europe is recounted by the people whom she meets, who she sometimes steals from, hitchhikes with, who beat her, pity her, give her kindness and money. These are eyes that we are forced to see Ines through whether we like the storyteller or not. Their versions of the 'truth' to who they see Ines as are sometimes, uncomfortable, grotesque and occasionally heart warming. Ines could be as faceless and separate as any of the migrants we read about and this approach challenges the reader to review their own attitude to the character.
The majority of Ines's story is told from the perspective of Defoe (as he is known; no one can ever quite be trusted) who observes Ines during her employment as a carer for a blind man in Berlin. He sees a remote woman with the private motivations which he experiences alongside the emotional and selfish entanglement he finds himself in between her and her employer.
It's not until the final section of the book that we hear from Ines. The reader has been backed into a corner full of dispassion and shock at her actions because her motives and emotions are hidden from those she interacts with. So when Ines finally tells her story, from the moment she leaves Tunisia, the reader feels the jigsaw starting to fit together to conjure a narrative far richer and emotionally conflicting than is comfortable. The end was quite gentle, really moving yet credible so the story felt like it had a future beyond the Jones' narrative.
Hand Me Down World is a book which will stay with me for some time. Snatches of the narrative require more thought than books usually garner, so easily closed and forgotten when you reach the end. Jones is a story teller of great skill; I'll be looking out for more of his award winning writing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Hand Me Down World is a fascinating story about one woman's journey in search of a future for herself and then for her child. It is told from a number of different perspectives so that the story unfolds a bit like an artichoke: you enjoy savouring a taste of each leaf and then you reach the heart. It underlines the known truth that everyone has their own perspective and interpretation of events: by the end of the novel you realise that all is not necessarily as it seems. The prose is quite matter of fact and staccato, reflecting the character of the woman we know as Ines, who is able to suspend her emotions and blank her mind to achieve her ultimate goals. There is an allusion late in the book to Asperger traits.
Some horrible things happen to Ines, but as she says herself in the novel, she meets more kindness than cruelty. It is difficult to say more without giving away some of the secrets that are gradually unpeeled in this novel. I really enjoyed it, and I will never see hotel staff in the same light again.... I now look forward to reading some of Lloyd Jones's previous novels.
Some horrible things happen to Ines, but as she says herself in the novel, she meets more kindness than cruelty. It is difficult to say more without giving away some of the secrets that are gradually unpeeled in this novel. I really enjoyed it, and I will never see hotel staff in the same light again.... I now look forward to reading some of Lloyd Jones's previous novels.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I thought I was going to really enjoy this book. I loved Mr Pip, and the blurb for this one sounded intriguing. The structure is ambitious and original, consisting of a series of witness statements about the main protagonist "Ines" as she travels from Tunisia to Berlin in search of her son, followed by her side of the story, which doesn't always tie in with the other accounts. However, I felt there was something hollow about the book. The structure, although unusual, didn't work for me - I found it too disjointed having one character tell their events, then another, while never really fully engaging with "Ines" herself. I almost stopped reading by page 100 - I felt bored by this stream of characters by that point, and it was only the fact that I'd read so many rave reviews about the book here and in the press that made me persevere.
One huge problem for me was that I didn't fully believe in Ines either - for someone who was so desperate to find her son that she'd make this incredible journey constantly putting herself in danger, she came across as remarkably dispassionate. [*spoiler alert*] I don't think she'd have been quite so docile and complicit when it came to arrangements with Jermayne. I think she would have bothered learning more German so that she could communicate with her son and, without wanting to give too much away, I didn't quite buy the fact that after having gone through so much to track him down, she didn't find a way to snatch him and take him back.
This is not a book I'd go out of my way to recommend, but plenty of other people seem to have loved it and indeed, there were moments where I was gripped - the set-up with Jermayne for example is well executed, and the description of Ines making the boat trip and her journey ashore is visual and vivid. Ultimately though, for me, it lacked warmth, it lacked humour and it lacked credibility in places.
One huge problem for me was that I didn't fully believe in Ines either - for someone who was so desperate to find her son that she'd make this incredible journey constantly putting herself in danger, she came across as remarkably dispassionate. [*spoiler alert*] I don't think she'd have been quite so docile and complicit when it came to arrangements with Jermayne. I think she would have bothered learning more German so that she could communicate with her son and, without wanting to give too much away, I didn't quite buy the fact that after having gone through so much to track him down, she didn't find a way to snatch him and take him back.
This is not a book I'd go out of my way to recommend, but plenty of other people seem to have loved it and indeed, there were moments where I was gripped - the set-up with Jermayne for example is well executed, and the description of Ines making the boat trip and her journey ashore is visual and vivid. Ultimately though, for me, it lacked warmth, it lacked humour and it lacked credibility in places.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An thoughtful story told in an interesting way
Hand me down world is the story of a woman told through the people she meets on a journey to find her lost son. Read more
Published 1 month ago by cbrynr
AMAZING
I couldn't put this book down. It is amazing and gripping. I absolutely loved it. The story of a woman who would do anything to find her son again and what happens in the end is... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Me Lacolley Esau D
What a great book
I LOVED this book. The author presented some very simple ideas - how people view the same experience differently - in a very clever and thought provoking way. Read more
Published 9 months ago by hannah
Slow start
This was a book that difinitely came into its own in the second half. From that point on, the characters started to develop and I became more involved with the narrative. Read more
Published 9 months ago by DubaiReader
Holiday stuff
This is a decent novel. it has characters you can believe in and care about, it has a story, and there's plenty about human nature, prejudice, love and sacrifice, a little humour... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Maclennane
Going on in front of your eyes
I notice that Jones's hugely involving study of people caught up in human trafficking is being offered by Amazon in a bundle with the bland saga One Day. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Alan Hansen
Thought provoking and cleverly written
Tricked into giving her baby away by her German lover, "Ines" travels from the Tunisian coast to Berlin, in order to be reunited with her child. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Princess Mononoke
Too much of an uphill struggle...
After reading the blurb and reviews from other readers, I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into this book. Read more
Published 13 months ago by C. Moorby
An acquired taste is Lloyd Jones
I have read several of Lloyd Jones' books, and they have one thing in common. They are all very different. This is Ines' story, told twice. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Both the Macs
`To hold onto even a little is still to have it.'
This is the story of a woman we know as Ines: an African woman who travels illegally to Europe to try to find her son. Read more
Published 14 months ago by J. Cameron-Smith
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