Laura Laura
Published on 13. August 2020
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-78770-245-5 (ISBN)
Description
"[Francis] is just so good at the transcription and transformation of everyday ordinary life, all seen from sideways on, so that everything becomes so strange and so funny."-Tessa Hadley
An elderly academic is accosted by a homeless woman on his way home from the cinema. She tells him her name is Laura. So begins a nightmarish journey for Gerald, who is forced to confront the mystery of his own past and to ask himself if he has lived a good life - or even a decent one.
In the course of this very funny, sometimes disturbing and often moving novel, suppressed memories return to haunt him, including the question of the role he played in a family tragedy. Above all he has to assess the harm he may have done in a long-forgotten love affair.
Those close to him suddenly appear unfathomable as he begins to question if he truly knows those closest to him and even himself.
The problem with exploring the past, Gerald begins to see, is that there are an infinite number of ways to travel through it.
An elderly academic is accosted by a homeless woman on his way home from the cinema. She tells him her name is Laura. So begins a nightmarish journey for Gerald, who is forced to confront the mystery of his own past and to ask himself if he has lived a good life - or even a decent one.
In the course of this very funny, sometimes disturbing and often moving novel, suppressed memories return to haunt him, including the question of the role he played in a family tragedy. Above all he has to assess the harm he may have done in a long-forgotten love affair.
Those close to him suddenly appear unfathomable as he begins to question if he truly knows those closest to him and even himself.
The problem with exploring the past, Gerald begins to see, is that there are an infinite number of ways to travel through it.
Reviews / Votes
"I haven't been so sorry to finish a novel for a long time. I think it's a triumph." * Samantha Harvey * "The novel is [...] full of memorable apercus - particularly strikingly when it evokes 'that alchemy which transforms anxiety, failure or disaster into the safety of anecdote' [...] There's a certain alchemy in writing that can transform themes of anxiety, failure or disaster into something as moving, disturbing and funny as this novel is." * The Spectator * "Elegantly written, humorous and perfect in its evocation of a flickering past." * The Tatler, All the best new books of the summer * "Richard Francis is one of the UK's most underrated novelists." * The Huffington Post, 22 Brilliant Books To Read This Autumn * "Delivered with such imagination and chutzpah [...] The pleasure of Laura Laura is in its robust - even fun - approach to serious stuff. * The Critic * "Funny, moving, absorbing, thought-provoking[...]. I read this book in a state of almost continuous delight." * Shiny New Books *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
391 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78770-245-5 (9781787702455)
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
Person
Richard Francis was educated at Cambridge and Harvard. He has written 17 books, both fiction and nonfiction, including a number of books on American history and thought. His award-winning novels and books of nonfiction have been published by leading houses in London and New York, including Fourth Estate, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, W.W. Norton, Faber & Faber, and Pantheon. He and his wife live in Suffolk.