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The Pilot's Wife (Paperback)

by Anita Shreve (Author) "SHE HEARD A KNOCKING, AND THEN A DOG BARKING ..." (more)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Frequently Bought Together

The Pilot's Wife + Fortune's Rocks + The Weight of Water
Price For All Three: £16.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 293 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (18 Nov 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0349110859
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349110851
  • Product Dimensions: 20 x 12.6 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 19,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > S > Shreve, Anita

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

With five novels to her credit, including the acclaimed The Weight of Water, Anita Shreve now offers a skilfully crafted exploration of the long reach of tragedy in The Pilot's Wife. News of Jack Lyons's fatal crash sends his wife into shock and emotional numbness:
Kathryn wished she could manage a coma. Instead, it seemed that quite the opposite had happened: She felt herself to be inside of a private weather system, one in which she was continuously tossed and buffeted by bits of news and information, sometimes chilled by thoughts of what lay immediately ahead, thawed by the kindness of others ... frequently drenched by memories that seemed to have no regard for circumstance or place, and then subjected to the nearly intolerable heat of reporters, photographers and curious onlookers. It was a weather system with no logic, she had decided, no pattern, no progression, no form.

The situation becomes even more dire when the plane's black box is recovered, pinning responsibility for the crash on Jack. In an attempt to clear his name, Kathryn searches for any and all clues to the hours before the flight. Yet each discovery forces her to realise that she didn't know her husband of 16 years at all. Shreve's complex and highly convincing treatment of Kathryn's dilemma, coupled with intriguing minor characters and an expertly paced plot, makes The Pilot's Wife really take off. --James Barry



Review

'Brilliantly captures the sense of a person succumbing to the shock of an emotional tidal wave' Lynne Truss, THE TIMES; 'A gripping analysis of how even the closest bonds never permit us to know another person entirely' OBSERVER; 'Shreve's prose is astonishing; this is a powerful story, beautifully written' SUNDAY TIMES
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SHE HEARD A KNOCKING, AND THEN A DOG BARKING. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

46 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
 (10)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (46 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A MOSAIC OF AN EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE..., 20 Sep 2001
By Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This is a beautifully written novel about a happily married woman, Kathryn Lyons, whose husband, Jack, is an airlines pilot. They have a teen age daughter named Mattie. They live in Kathryn's childhood home in Ely, New Hampshire. For sixteen years, life has been good. Then her husband goes down with his plane, just ten miles off the coast of Ireland, and ever so slowly the very fabric of their life together unravels.

The media frenzy, surrounding the explosion of the plane that her husband was piloting, brings to light the inescapable fact that her husband had been, unbeknownst to her, leading a double life, a life that had not included her or their daughter, but had, most emphatically, excluded them. This is a story of Kathryn's navigation of the emotional roller coaster that was to become her life, as she is thrust into a maelstrom of grief and disbelief, struggling to reconcile her memory of the man she thought she knew, with the reality of who he now appeared to have been.

This is a remarkable book, written in clean, spare prose that underscores some of the very emotion laden issues with which it grapples. At times infinitely sad and poignant, it is a story of betrayal and splintered memories. It is a very absorbing, skillfully told tale of adultery that will hold the reader in its thrall.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best Shreve book I have read...... , 23 Oct 2007
By Wynne Kelly "Kellydoll" (Coventry, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
Kathryn gets a knock at the door in the middle of the night and her life begins to unravel. Her husband has been killed in a mid-air explosion en route to US from London. She and her teenage daughter are both distraught and are comforted by Robert, sent by the airline, and Kathryn's grandmother Julia. It soon becomes clear that her "good marriage" may not have been all she thought. She travels to London to try to find out the truth behind her husband's double life. Meanwhile the press are suggesting suicide by Jack (and at the same time killing a hundred other people) caused by a bomb brought on the plane by him.

This is not the best Shreve book I have read. The prose is lovely and the emotions of Kathryn and Mattie are well handled and believable and the character of Julia is strong. Muire is much less real and the plot all a bit contrived......

The ending is ambivalent which suits the tone of the book.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A MOSAIC OF AN EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE..., 13 Jan 2003
By Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Pilot's Wife (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a beautifully written novel about a happily married woman, Kathryn Lyons, whose husband, Jack, is an airline pilot. They have a teenage daughter named Mattie. They live in her lovely childhood home in Ely, New Hampshire. For sixteen years life has been good. Then her husband goes down with his plane, just ten miles off the coast of Ireland, and ever so slowly the very fabric of their life together unravels.

The media frenzy, surrounding the explosion of the plane that her husband was piloting, brings to light the plain fact that her husband had been, unbeknownst to her, leading a double life, a life that had not included her or their daughter, but had, most emphatically, excluded them. This is a story of Kathryn's navigation of the emotional roller coaster that was to become her life. She is thrust into a maelstrom of grief and disbelief, as she struggles to reconcile her memory of the man she thought she knew, with the reality of who he now appeared to have been.

This is a remarkable book, written in clean spare prose that underscores some of the very emotion laden issues with which it grapples. At times infinitely sad and poignant, it is a story of betrayal and splintered memories, as well as a very absorbing, skillfully told tale of adultery that will hold the reader in its thrall.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A story well told
I enjoyed this.
Do like Anita Shreve anyway and this did not disappoint.

The characters were believable and well-drawn. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. B. Taylor

4.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable read
A beautifully written novel, the discovery of another life for Captain Jack Lyons was not entirely a shock as I had read the summary and critiques at the back of the book before... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ruth Settle

4.0 out of 5 stars How Well Do You Know Your Spouse?
The Pilot's Wife looks at that common subject of modern fiction, alienation that separates nonreligious from one another. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Professor Donald Mitchell

4.0 out of 5 stars Very absorbing
This was my introduction to Anita Shreve's books. I certainly loved it and went on to buy others. This is the gripping story of that infamous "knock at the door" and what... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2007 by I LOVE BOOKS

1.0 out of 5 stars A truly Awful book
I picked up this novel to take with me on holiday- I had heard of Anita Shreve as a writer of some substance and skill and thought I ought to acquaint myself. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2007 by Mr. S. J. Bonsor

5.0 out of 5 stars A simply wonderful, classic must-read
This book was my introduction to Anita Shreve's works and I have read it already several times. Her style of writing is captivating, the setting in Ely, New Hampshire, magical and... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2007 by T. Ljubic-Brown

2.0 out of 5 stars dissapointing.
i was so let down by this book. i expected great things after reading great reviews.
there is no doubt that the prose is wonderful. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2007 by Mrs. D. L. Cox

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pilot's Wife
Kathryn thought she had the perfect marriage, until it literally came crashing down on her. When she gets the dreaded knock on the door in the middle of the night she receives the... Read more
Published on 24 May 2006 by DevJohn01

2.0 out of 5 stars The Pilot's Wife
Having previously read "Fortune's Rocks", "The Last Time They Met" and "Sea Glass" I was keen to read more of Anita Shreve's books. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2005 by ramblerose

3.0 out of 5 stars Other reviews...
I really enjoyed the book but made the mistake of reading the readers' reviews whilst part-way through. Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2005

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