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Product Description
After a Chernobyl-like accident at a fast breeder reactor on the north coast of France, Britain is shrouded in radioactive fall-out. When her best friend is murdered, a young writer is forced to make sense of the deadly world she now occupies.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Quiet Woman is probably Priest's least known novel. It's certainly not in the same league as The Affirmation or the The Glamour or The Prestige, but it is compelling nonetheless. The story revolves around a woman writer living in rural England, the murder of one of her friends, and the suppression of her most recent book. Priest touches on many themes here - largely political and literary - and the book is populated by a small cast of characters, each of whom is mysterious in their own way (except the cat, which is delightfully and typically feline!) The ambiguity of the characters, far from being a weakness, adds a certain edge to the story and, in typical Priest style, leaves you wondering about the nature of reality. It's not an 'alternate reality' novel like some of his others (The Affirmation, A Dream of Wessex, The Separation); it's more about different perceptions of reality, and how people create their own realities.
The setting is equally mysterious, with hints of a recent nuclear disaster, crop circles and shadowy government cover-ups, none of which are developed to any great extent. Together, they provide rather a dark, disturbing backdrop for this interesting, slightly weird novel. If you like your books to leave you pondering, you should like this one.
The setting is equally mysterious, with hints of a recent nuclear disaster, crop circles and shadowy government cover-ups, none of which are developed to any great extent. Together, they provide rather a dark, disturbing backdrop for this interesting, slightly weird novel. If you like your books to leave you pondering, you should like this one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Quiet Woman" is an unusual book for Priest, in that, superficially, the plot is thin and basic. It is set in an alternative version of the "present" (the book was first published in 1990), in southern England.
The beauty of the writing keeps you reading until some unusual events start occurring when one of the two central characters - Gordon Sinclair - is involved in the story. These events are left unexplained, the main thrust of the story following the activities of Abigail - "the quiet woman" - to the extent that the writing dwells on minutiae of her life that authors usually ignore. This pattern persists for most of the short book, and there are occasions on which these minutiae irritate, but somehow, to Priest's credit, the plot and the skill of the author maintain enough momentum and interest to keep you reading.
The perseverance is rewarded when everything becomes clear (well, nearly, this is a Priest novel after all!) towards the end, and the over-riding sensation is one of chilly eeriness. Very creepy!
The beauty of the writing keeps you reading until some unusual events start occurring when one of the two central characters - Gordon Sinclair - is involved in the story. These events are left unexplained, the main thrust of the story following the activities of Abigail - "the quiet woman" - to the extent that the writing dwells on minutiae of her life that authors usually ignore. This pattern persists for most of the short book, and there are occasions on which these minutiae irritate, but somehow, to Priest's credit, the plot and the skill of the author maintain enough momentum and interest to keep you reading.
The perseverance is rewarded when everything becomes clear (well, nearly, this is a Priest novel after all!) towards the end, and the over-riding sensation is one of chilly eeriness. Very creepy!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A bit of an oddity and difficult to describe. This is another fine and disturbing novel by Priest but not as fully realised as most of his other works. Paranoia, murder, graphic sexual assault, hallucinations, all of this mixed in with mundane day to day Englishness like cooking tea and going to the shops. As with all Priests books the fabric of reality appears worn thin and there are weird and unexpected occurrences and shifts of perception. None of it is really developed into anything concrete and involving however and the ending is very abrupt and rather unsatisfactory. It feels as if Priest sort of ran out of ideas with this one. Priest fans should read it but not a good place to start with if you don't know his stuff.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
But, what, was she.. when?
Twist and turn and twist again and turn one more time then twist.
This story will leave you dizzy. Read more
This story will leave you dizzy. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Tom Quiet
Ehm..go and run that past me again Chris please.
Well if anybody can tell me what really happens in this book they are a better man than me Gunga-Din. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2005
The quiet statement
Christopher Priest is a favourite author and has produced SF classics like 'Inverted World'. However, he moved away from the SF genre claiming it to be a played out field. Read more
Published on 5 Dec 2002 by R. J. Hole
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