- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (3 May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 029784878X
- ISBN-13: 978-0297848783
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 16.6 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 711,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
In Another Light
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Review
'This is a strongly visual novel, where objects from the past are rediscovered in the present and given context...This is a mature work, and Greig's sparing use of Scots borders on the poetic. Wide in scope yet intimate in execution, the light in this fiction will illuminate many dark nights.' (David Martin SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY (2.5.04) )
'The result is a heart-breaking tale by a leading Scottish writer, who reminds us that whilst love's image changes through time, it has always felt the same.' (Daisy Foster Jack )
'IN ANOTHER LIGHT, like all Greig's writing exudes vitality and hopefulness - renewal to offset the loss.' (Sam Phipps THE HERALD )
'Andrew Greig's fifth novel is big, rich and as ambitious as any novel by a Scots writer that I have read in years. (Allan Massie THE SCOTSMAN )
'a writer of integrity and imaginative energy.' (TLS )
'the words are so expressive...... he just tells the and story and tells it well... Greig is master of his material and unfurls his canvas with meticulous care (David Robson SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
'the settings flip between the heat and lushnes of Thirties' Penang and the wild beauty of Orkney today. With his poet's eye, Greig brings both brilliantly to life.' (CHOICE )
'Greig's writing about the Orkneys is vivid and convincing' (Tessa Hadley THE GUARDIAN )
'From wild, windswept Orkney we are constantly plunged into the lushness of the tropics. Penang in the declining years of empire is skilfully recreated: bluff colonials down their stengahs in cool billiard rooms, while outside the jungle steams, along with the emotions of the reserved Scottish doctor as he encounters passion for the first time. These two stories run together. Although 70 years and half a world separate them, Greig succeeds in making the strands weave in and out with considerab (Carol Birch THE INDEPENDENT )
'it is enjoyably written.' (Gerard Woodward THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )
'The result is a heart-breaking tale by a leading Scottish writer, who reminds us that whilst love's image changes through time, it has always felt the same.' (Daisy Foster Jack )
'IN ANOTHER LIGHT, like all Greig's writing exudes vitality and hopefulness - renewal to offset the loss.' (Sam Phipps THE HERALD )
'Andrew Greig's fifth novel is big, rich and as ambitious as any novel by a Scots writer that I have read in years. (Allan Massie THE SCOTSMAN )
'a writer of integrity and imaginative energy.' (TLS )
'the words are so expressive...... he just tells the and story and tells it well... Greig is master of his material and unfurls his canvas with meticulous care (David Robson SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
'the settings flip between the heat and lushnes of Thirties' Penang and the wild beauty of Orkney today. With his poet's eye, Greig brings both brilliantly to life.' (CHOICE )
'Greig's writing about the Orkneys is vivid and convincing' (Tessa Hadley THE GUARDIAN )
'From wild, windswept Orkney we are constantly plunged into the lushness of the tropics. Penang in the declining years of empire is skilfully recreated: bluff colonials down their stengahs in cool billiard rooms, while outside the jungle steams, along with the emotions of the reserved Scottish doctor as he encounters passion for the first time. These two stories run together. Although 70 years and half a world separate them, Greig succeeds in making the strands weave in and out with considerab (Carol Birch THE INDEPENDENT )
'it is enjoyably written.' (Gerard Woodward THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Andrew Greig, TLS
'a writer of integrity and imaginative energy.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't quite understand why Greig isn't being 'hyped', publicised HUGELY and his books stacked up in big visual displays.
He is a STUNNING writer. I came upon him almost by accident and got immediately hooked, and am trying to work through his works quite slowly, with lots of gaps between the books, as he really deserves a slow read.
His characters are all beautifully drawn, the plot lines are good and absorbing, and his ability to create a real sense of time and place wonderful - but it is the writing itself which enchants me, his use of language, his ability to paint with words, particularly the evocation of landscape. His 'poetic' background is very much in evidence - but not in any sort of showy or deliberately 'clever' way, just that I have such a sense of words being used with layer and precision.
He's a really tender writer, and the human fragility and complexity of his characters is carefully and heartfully explored.
I know I'm going to end up even reading the mountaineering books!
He is a STUNNING writer. I came upon him almost by accident and got immediately hooked, and am trying to work through his works quite slowly, with lots of gaps between the books, as he really deserves a slow read.
His characters are all beautifully drawn, the plot lines are good and absorbing, and his ability to create a real sense of time and place wonderful - but it is the writing itself which enchants me, his use of language, his ability to paint with words, particularly the evocation of landscape. His 'poetic' background is very much in evidence - but not in any sort of showy or deliberately 'clever' way, just that I have such a sense of words being used with layer and precision.
He's a really tender writer, and the human fragility and complexity of his characters is carefully and heartfully explored.
I know I'm going to end up even reading the mountaineering books!
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An expertly written novel, with many beautiful turns of phrase. Plot summary (with some minor spoilers) follows.
After an illness that took him near to death, Edward Mackay determines to find out more about his late father's mysterious past, and to make good on a promise. While working on an pioneering project whose aim is to make electricity from the awesome power of the waves that batter a remote Scottish island, he investigates the chain of events that caused his father to destroy most of the evidence of his time as a doctor in colonial Penang.
Dr Alexander Mackay's story is revealed by his son's account of his findings, and by the novel's own narrative, which switches between present day Orkney and the dying days of the British Empire in South East Asia. The young doctor has an eventful sea crossing in the company of an eclectic crowd including two sisters, "both beautiful, one a gazelle" (and of an unattainable social class). There is a notorious incident on the quayside on arrival, but the doctor is gradually accepted into Penang society, with regular visits to the Simpson sisters (one of whom is married) for tiffin. He soon agrees to do a task for a friend he met on the voyage that threatens to compromise his integrity as a man of medicine, and following a mysterious accident and a holiday in the Sumatran highlands, he leaves the island under a cloud of scandal.
It's an entertainingly told story, with unexpected turns and coincidences, and evokes the conditions of pre-WWII social stratification in Penang as well as it does the complications of Edward's life as a single, forty year old man in a small island community in modern-day Britain, where customs dictate that knocking on someone's door, before entering their flat and walking into their bedroom, is untrusting and unfriendly.
Edward's investigations, which proceed by way of clues including a buddha figurine and a double-one domino, and helpers including an old lady (who may not be exactly who she claims to be), and a dippy blonde whom he literally bumps into in London, add spice to the present-day story. His recovery, his debt to the past, and a newly discovered interest in music are aided by a feisty Orkney woman called Mica and an odd assortment of colleagues. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- Mica's own emotional problems, and with a nemesis in the form of a belligerent fisherman by the name of Kipper, he manages to come to terms with the person he has become since his devastating illness.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Whenever I open the first pages of a book, this is the engrossing read I am hoping for! A man's quest to know more about his fathers' past is alternated with that past as his father experiences it. Magically evocative of a distant outpost of the crumbling British Empire with its heat, noise, manners and colour juxtaposed with efforts to grasp the last tendrils of a personal history from our modern, technology driven present based in Orkney.
I was encouraged to read this by the fact those who had read it went on to read more of his works - always the sign of a good author. I'm now going to read That Summer!
I was encouraged to read this by the fact those who had read it went on to read more of his works - always the sign of a good author. I'm now going to read That Summer!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautifully written tale of contrasting time and place
Andrew Greig is for me one of the best writers around at the moment; Electric Brae is perhaps my favourite novel ever. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Lendrick
For Audiobook Listeners: David Rintoul again gives a superb...
So for a great Audiobook, it needs both the Writer and the Performer to work to the highest levels of performance - and this is a great audiobook. Read more
Published 17 months ago by EllaGuru
Fabulous
I am a Scot who has only recently discovered this author. I found this book to be absolutely wonderful. A very gripping read which had me really caring about the characters. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2009 by hippychick
transport to another world
A great read. Fascinating detail of ex-pat life in the orient before the War. Lyrical writing about Orkney . An engrossing plot. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2007 by meg keir
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