Pearl
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023
Published on 11. May 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-911648-52-9 (ISBN)
Description
Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother's love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, and the songs and stories of her childhood.
As time passes, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother's disappearance and the secrets she's sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and trusting in its promise of consolation, Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it, a task that she returns to over and over but somehow never manages to complete.
Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne? And will her own future as a mother help her find peace?
As time passes, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother's disappearance and the secrets she's sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and trusting in its promise of consolation, Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it, a task that she returns to over and over but somehow never manages to complete.
Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river, her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne? And will her own future as a mother help her find peace?
Reviews / Votes
An interview with author Sian Hughes: 'the heart of the mystery is this dangerous ground of motherhood' - Lucy Writers Platform -- Rym Kechacha * Lucy Writers *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
250 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911648-52-9 (9781911648529)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sian Hughes is a writer who grew up a small village Cheshire where the story of Pearl is set. Returning to live in the village after her mother's death, she borrowed from the medieval poem Pearl to write a story set in an old house she used to cycle past every day as a child.
Her first collection of poetry The Missing (Salt, 2009) was a Poetry Society Recommendation, longlisted for The Guardian first book of the year, shortlisted for the Felix Dennis and the Aldeburgh Prize and won the Seamus Heaney award. The collection included the elegy The Send-Off which won the Arvon International poetry prize in 2006.
Sian lives in Cheshire with her son. Pearl is her first novel.
Her first collection of poetry The Missing (Salt, 2009) was a Poetry Society Recommendation, longlisted for The Guardian first book of the year, shortlisted for the Felix Dennis and the Aldeburgh Prize and won the Seamus Heaney award. The collection included the elegy The Send-Off which won the Arvon International poetry prize in 2006.
Sian lives in Cheshire with her son. Pearl is her first novel.