Is There Anything You Want?
Published on 2. February 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-09-947213-1 (ISBN)
Description
What do Mrs H., Rachel, Edwina, Ida, Sarah, Dot, Chrissie have in common? They're all women, but they're fat, thin, old, young, married or single - and appear as diverse as human nature can be. But they are all survivors. This enthralling novel follows the ripples that go out into ordinary lives that have been changed by a shared experience, all connected by the same hospital clinic in a small Northern town.
This is a novel about what it means to live in the shadow of disease, and with scars, whether mental or physical. From the marvellous ambivalence of the title question, it leaves us with a whole lot more to consider about life and its infinite variety.
This is a novel about what it means to live in the shadow of disease, and with scars, whether mental or physical. From the marvellous ambivalence of the title question, it leaves us with a whole lot more to consider about life and its infinite variety.
Reviews / Votes
Few authors share Margaret Forster's extraordinary ability to transform the ordinary day-to-day activities of unremarkable people into compelling fiction... Written with brilliant and exquisite sensitivity * Daily Mail * Written with enormous sensitivity and compassion * Red * The kind of novel into which you plunge with satisfaction * Sunday Times * Accomplished...moving * Times Literary Supplement * Written with insight, wit and tremendous style * Spectator * Forster's empathy and lack of sentimentality, as well as her quick ear and eye for the telling detail, command attention, while her skills as a storyteller ensure the reader's avid curiosity about what happens next * Literary Review * Forster excels at depicting ordinary lives.Beautifully controlled * Independent on Sunday * Forster's prose, is, as always, clear, robust and unpretentious * Daily Telegraph * Pristine writing * Time Out * Insightful and intelligent * Woman & Home *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
311 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-947213-1 (9780099472131)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Margaret Forster
Is There Anything You Want?
E-Book
08/2012
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster was the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want? , Keeping the World Away, Over and The Unknown Bridesmaid. She also wrote bestselling memoirs - Hidden Lives, Precious Lives and, most recently, My Life in Houses - and biographies. She was married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lived in London and the Lake District. She died in February 2016, just before her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, was published.