Crossing the River
Published on 7. September 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-09-949826-1 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction
Caryl Phillips' ambitious and powerful novel spans two hundred and fifty years of the African diaspora. It tracks two brothers and a sister on their separate journeys through different epochs and continents: one as a missionary to Liberia in the 1830s, one a pioneer on a wagon trail to the American West later that century, and one a GI posted to a Yorkshire village in the Second World War.
'Epic and frequently astonishing'
The Times
'Its resonance continues to deepen'
New York Times
Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction
Caryl Phillips' ambitious and powerful novel spans two hundred and fifty years of the African diaspora. It tracks two brothers and a sister on their separate journeys through different epochs and continents: one as a missionary to Liberia in the 1830s, one a pioneer on a wagon trail to the American West later that century, and one a GI posted to a Yorkshire village in the Second World War.
'Epic and frequently astonishing'
The Times
'Its resonance continues to deepen'
New York Times
Reviews / Votes
A compassionate, forceful and profoundly moving revelation * Scotland on Sunday * [T]here are gems of impassioned writing quilted within this ambitious cross-cultural novel of loss and reconciliation * Sunday Times * Epic and frequently astonishing * The Times * Crossing the River is dense with event and ingeniously structured. It requires concentration and is worth it * Independent * An ambitious exploration of oppression, loss and reconciliation that employs a collage of styles and ranges across continents and centuries -- Nicci Gerrard * Observer * [Phillips is] a master ventriloquist, giving immediacy and voice to an impressive range of vivid characters about whom the reader cares deeply... Wonderfully individual * San Francisco Chronicle * Caryl Phillips' exploration of the relations betweeen black and white is nuanced, humane and sypathetic. And his deep awareness of the historical process is combined with an exceptionally intelligent prose style - clear, unencumbered and compassionate * New Statesman and Society *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 199 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
184 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-949826-1 (9780099498261)
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
Caryl Phillips
Crossing the River
E-Book
02/2011
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Caryl Phillips was born in St Kitts and now lives in London and New York. He has written for television, radio, theatre and cinema and is the author of twelve works of fiction and non-fiction. Crossing the River was shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Award. Caryl Phillips has also won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Best of Young British Writers 1993. A Distant Shore won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2004 and Dancing in the Dark was shortlisted in 2006.