Undercurrent
The heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful novel about finding yourself, from the Times bestselling author of Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain
Published on 24. August 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-80499-184-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Lyrical' Daily Mail
'Beautiful' Spectator
'Skilled' Financial Times
'Vulnerable' Guardian
'Deft' Independent
'Profound' Observer
'The beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.'
Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He's been living in London for years - some of them good - but he's stuck in a relationship he can't move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can't shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.
Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
'Beautiful' Spectator
'Skilled' Financial Times
'Vulnerable' Guardian
'Deft' Independent
'Profound' Observer
'The beginning of summer. Perhaps it crosses my mind even now while I wait for news of Amy that something is coming towards us. Like sighting the first slow swell of a wave.'
Years ago, in an almost accidental moment of heroism, Ed saved Amy from drowning. Now, in his thirties, he finds himself adrift. He's been living in London for years - some of them good - but he's stuck in a relationship he can't move forward, has a job that just pays the bills, and can't shake the sense that life should mean more than this. Perhaps all Ed needs is a moment to pause. To exhale and start anew. And when he meets Amy again by chance, it seems that happiness might not be so far out of reach. But then tragedy overtakes him, and Ed must decide whether to let history and duty define his life, or whether he should push against the tide and write his own story.
Filled with hope and characteristic warmth, Undercurrent is a moving and intimate portrait of love, of life and why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
Reviews / Votes
Norris hits this universal note squarely and successfully. Undercurrent is a defiantly unfashionable, heartfelt, emotionally vulnerable novel about mothers and sons, letting go of the past and saying what you need to say to your loved ones before it's too late. * Guardian * A profound meditation on dealing with loss and finding your moorings in destabilising times * Observer * Always skilled at creating character and voice... Norris demonstrates how seemingly insignificant moments impact a life. * Financial Times * Beautiful and useful. His writing untangles the knots that tie us down, to families, to history. He writes to free us and deserves our thanks. * Spectator * Lyrical, yearning, elegiac * Daily Mail * Norris is a terrific writer. His characters not only convince, they're invested with a depth of personality that fixes them in the reader's mind long after the book has been replaced on the shelf... Undoubtedly one of the finest novels to come out of these islands this or any year. * New European * Norris's latest novel is a lyrical and affecting examination of love, life and the stories that shape us * Big Issue * A deft novel about a struggling thirtysomething man's chance meeting with a girl he once saved from drowning and the changes the event sets in motion. * Independent * A beautiful novel, introspective and thoughtful. Undercurrent washes with a quiet intensity. * Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground * Undercurrent is a profound and absorbing story of flux, failures and joys that charts the beautiful, ineffable welter of life itself. * Alison MacLeod, author of Tenderness *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
196 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80499-184-8 (9781804991848)
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
Barney Norris
Undercurrent
The heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful novel about finding yourself, from the Times bestselling author of Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain
E-Book
08/2022
Transworld Digital
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Barney Norris has been the recipient of the International Theatre Institute's Award for Excellence, the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, a South Bank Sky Arts Times Breakthrough Award, an Evening Standard Progress 1000 Award, a Betty Trask Award and the Northern Ireland One Book Award. His work has been translated into eight languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, teaches Creative Writing at the University of Oxford where he is the Martin Esslin Playwright in Residence at Keble College, Oxford, and regularly reviews fiction for the Guardian.