The Wonder
Published on 5. August 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-09-947905-5 (ISBN)
Description
As a child Lucas thought that all children who'd lost their parents lived on water. Now a restless young man still living with his sister Denise on their West London narrowboat, he determines to find out more about the unexplained disappearance of his father, the charismatic Jamaican dancer, Antoney Matheus.Thus unfolds a journey from fifties Kingston to Sixties Notting Hill and the host of unforgettable characters who peopled Antoney's theatrical world, most importantly Carla, Lucas's mother. The result is a haunting family mystery of absence and inheritance, the battle between love and creativity, and what drives a young man to take flight...
Reviews / Votes
"The most dazzling depiction of the world of dance since Ballet Shoes'" -- Kate Saunders The Times "Her prose is airbound at times - an exhilarating celebration of rhythm, sway and leap" Daily Mail "Darkens from an absorbing mystery into a touching reckoning... Most striking is the delicacy and power with which Evans depicts emotional disturbance" The Guardian "The story is complex, clever, seamlessly achieved, its many currents blending in harmony, sometimes in conflict, to recreate that sense of randomness and accident that resemble the truth of life in the chancy present...The author's passion burns on the page, along with an almost tactile relish of the act of writing itself" -- Tom Adair Scotsman "A serious work of art with sentences like ribbons of silk winding around a skeleton of haunting imagery... Evans was born to write this novel" IndependentMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
220 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-947905-5 (9780099479055)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Diana Evans was a dancer before becoming a journalist and author. She has contributed to the Independent, Marie Claire, the Guardian, the Observer, Harper's Bazaar, the Daily Telegraph and many other publications, and holds an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, 26a, received a Betty Trask award, a nomination for the Guardian First Book Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel of the Year Award. It was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers and has been translated into twelve languages. She lives in London.