Alastair Sooke, Daily Telegraph
`Duncker writes with warmth and wit'
Review
'This is a sparkling, redemptive novel which I read in one go and then again with relish' Independent 'Bittersweet, compelling and moving' Sheila Hancock 'An enchanting novel, filled with all Dunker's trademark wit and intelligence' Daily Mail 'A story of real charm and compassion. It is, in short, the kind of novel you want to give all your friends - the elderly, to show them all is not lost, and the young, who have everything to gain' Telegraph
Caroline McGinn, Guardian
`Charming ... brilliantly observed and sparingly rendered'
Sarah Hughes, Observer
`A compassionate and often surprising tale of redemption ...
lingers long after the last page has been turned'
lingers long after the last page has been turned'
Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday
`This is a gem of a novel; wise, witty, warming and exquisitely
polished'
polished'
Product Description
Elizabeth Webster is a spinster pushing seventy. Forced out of her teaching job, she unleashes her sharp tongue and dogmatic opinions on everyone in the English village of Little Blessington. Then, one night, she grinds to a dead halt. To recover from this illness, she travels to North Africa where she has a brush with terrorism - not that she cares about politics. Three weeks after Miss Webster has returned home her doorbell rings. There stands a beautiful young Arab man carrying a large suitcase. Who is he, why is he there and what does he want?
From the Publisher
A intelligent, stylish page-turner. For fans of Ali Smith, A.L
Kennedy, Julian Barnes and Justin Cartwright's The Promise of Happiness.
Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2007 - Best Book (Europe
and South Asia region).
Kennedy, Julian Barnes and Justin Cartwright's The Promise of Happiness.
Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2007 - Best Book (Europe
and South Asia region).
About the Author
Patricia Duncker is the author of the novels Hallucinating Foucault (winner of the Dillons First Fiction Award and the McKitterick Prize in 1996), The Deadly Space Between, James Miranda Barry and Miss Webster and Cherif. She has also written two books of short stories, Monsieur Shoushana's Lemon Trees and Seven Tales of Sex and Death, and a collection of essays on writing and contemporary literature, Writing on the Wall. Patricia Duncker is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of Manchester.
