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Speaking of Love: A Novel [Paperback]

Angela Young
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Book Description

7 Feb 2008
What happens to families and relationships when people find it impossible to say the words, ''I love you''?

When love is not spoken about, a hole is created into which memories, happiness, relationships, trust and eventually people fall into. Mothers fail daughters, who then find themselves failing their own mothers. Parents abandon children through fear; husbands desert wives.

However, this is not an heroic tale or a memoir of devastation, but an everyday tale of loss and recovery. It takes a special event, a mother's first public speaking event since her breakdown, for the years of silence to make way for reconciliation. Silence can be a deathly force but the power of a whisper acknowledging love and acceptance is far greater.

This novel shares the importance of literary expression and creativity for overcoming fears and doubts and should be instrumental to book groups.

''It's a novel suffused with a love of storytelling, and a warmth that makes it a pleasure to read.'' - The Daily Mail, 8th February 2008

Product details

  • Paperback: 356 pages
  • Publisher: Beautiful Books (7 Feb 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1905636229
  • ISBN-13: 978-1905636228
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 19.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 784,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

From the Author

Angela Young was born in 1951. She has had short stories for children published in the American short story magazines, Cricket and Spider, and a story for adults is published in MsLexia. BBC Books published Young's 30,000-word ending to Edith Wharton's last, unfinished novel, The Buccaneers, and, in 2001, Young graduated from Middlesex university's MA in Creative Writing. Speaking of Love is Young's first novel and she is working on her second novel which will be a modern version of Beauty and the Beast. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Angela Young was born in 1951. She has had short stories for children published in the American short story magazines, Cricket and Spider, and a story for adults is published in MsLexia. BBC Books published Young's 30,000-word ending to Edith Wharton's last, unfinished novel, The Buccaneers, and, in 2001, Young graduated from Middlesex university's MA in Creative Writing. Speaking of Love is Young's first novel and she is working on her second novel which will be a modern version of Beauty and the Beast. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An unusual novel, beautifully written 26 July 2007
Format:Hardcover
Speaking of Love is a first book, and please may it not be Angela Young's last. About a lot of things, including schizophrenia, love, loss, missing the point, it hits the spot on all of them. I was caught swiftly, and minded about more than one of the characters throughout. The stories are interwoven but stand alone, and each of the people lives and breathes in their own way, connected to each other, yet individual. Angela Young writes vivid description and includes unexpected but important detail that brings things alive. I loved it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Staggeringly beautiful. 20 Jan 2008
By kehs TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
I really don't know where to start in order to do this book justice. I'll begin by saying that the opening lines had me hooked immediately . . . 'I have come home, after a long and difficult journey. I travelled alone and it was sometime before I realised that I had arrived'.

The tale we hear is about Iris who is a storyteller, her daughter Vivie, and Matthew, who was Vivie's childhood friend. All 3 take turns to tell their story, about how Iris has a mental breakdown and how her and Vivie become separated when Vivie was very young. The three stories end up linked together in a staggeringly beautiful finish that had me blubbing but at the same time filled me with joy. The book examines what it's like to live with someone who is suffering from a mental illness and the effects it has on everyone involved. The author makes us realise how important it is to tell each other what we are thinking and to not hide our feelings away from those we care about. I loved the symbolism of the tree all the way through this book and of how deep the story roots go. Also, I thought it was very clever to link the 3 main characters' chapters with fairy tales that are delightfully told.

Angela Young is definitely an author to look out for. More please, Angela!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable novel 25 May 2007
Format:Hardcover
This is a wonderful novel, beautifully written and characterised, it is engaging, lyrical, gentle, compassionate, wise - and, most important of all, a fantastically good read! I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A memorable novel 4 April 2007
By Kay
Format:Hardcover
I haven't enjoyed a novel so much for a long time. It is beautifully written and the characters are believable and capture you from the first page. I doubt if anyone reading it, whatever their circumstances, cannot identify with at least one of the characters - either in themselves, their families or in their friends. I read it in two sittings - most unusual for me - and I found it affected me profoundly. We all sit so near the edge without knowing it; we can all so easily fall on the wrong side of sanity for a number of reasons. This novel captures all that is good and bad in relationships. A really good read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Speaking of Love 1 Feb 2008
By Simon Thomas VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
Angela Young's novel has similarities with a couple of other modern novels I've mentioned on here - Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and Margaret Pelling's Work For Four Hands. The main similarity is that one reads investigatively; there is a central mystery to be unfurled, which will help explain why the characters act as they do, respond (or, rather, don't) to each other in the ways they do. Even without all the other reasons to read on, the need to discover how all the pieces fit together is enough to keep anybody hooked.

Speaking of Love is divided into three narrative strands, Iris's Story; Vivie's Story; Matthew's Story. At first I thought this was overkill, and did get a little confused - surely we don't need all three voices? How wrong I was. They are distinct personas, and Young cleverly presents Vivie in the third person, alongside Iris and Matthew in the first person, so little overlap occurs. No character has more than a few pages at any one time, and they always took up the narrative again at exactly the moment I was thinking "Hmm, we haven't heard from Iris/Vivie/Matthew in a while, I hope they're next".

Iris is, appropriately enough, a storyteller - though one who has suffered destructive illness - and is heading towards a storytellers' festival. Vivie, her daughter, hasn't seen her for years, and is suffering her own personal crises. Matthew, Vivie's childhood friend, is also off to the festival, with his father, to hear Iris. As these characters and their relationships are explored, so too are their shared and separate pasts - pieces of the puzzle are continually proferred, though never in such a way as they feel incongruous in the narrative.
... Read more ›
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Heart warming and moving. 5 Jan 2008
By SJSmith TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Such a lovely presented book as the hardback - it has a delightful book mark attached and I really liked the picture on the front. A pleasure to read, the book throws into questions what happens when we don't tell those closest to us how we feel. There are three narrators: Vivie, Iris and Matthew; with other characters involved along the way. Vivie and Matthew grew up next door to each other and Iris is Vivie's mother. The other characters include husbands, fathers and friends.

The book centres around mental illness and the impact that can have on families. Treatment and care is explored and how other people relate to those that are ill. Story telling is the biggest part of the novel with Iris having been told stories when she was a little girl and carrying the tradition on.

I came across this book through the World Book Day website and was very lucky to have been able to discuss (along with my reading group) issues raised in the novel with the author herself. It was a joy to read and I sincerely hope Angela Young goes on to write another novel.

It is well-written and once I'd settled into the flashbacks I was in for a great read. It should have a wide appeal as it covers a range of themes from love, trust, to family life, to mental illness. Something in there for a lot of different people. You may have a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye by the end.
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