Careless
Published on 9. August 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-340-93824-9 (ISBN)
Description
Attuned to her mother's volatile moods, eight-year-old Pearl watches over her small brother while carefully guarding her private passions. Sonia, recently widowed and with her two sons far away in Europe, is learning to live alone again. Then there's Adam, an artist who has yet to learn the true nature of love or grief. In ways unforeseen, all three will be connected by the tragedy that is about to shatter Pearl's life. Combining the intimacy of a family's heartache with the tension of a thriller, this wise, compassionate novel conveys the frightening vulnerability of children as it explores the ties of affection and responsibility that bind people together, but are too often neglected in our modern world.
Reviews / Votes
'Stunning! Robertson's writing is beautiful, poetic and heartfelt. She explores, most tenderly, the self-discovery that can come with bereavement' -- The Times 'Compelling!Utterly unsentimental and warmly confirmatory of the resilience of the human spirit' -- Daily Mail 'Engrossing !frank, unsentimental, yet warmly humane' -- Observer 'Her observations [are] as carefully chosen and charged with feeling as pebbles placed on a grave!CARELESS is an elegy for the lost and the grieving, but it also offers hope!deeply affecting' -- Guardian 'Marvellous...the writing is so crisp, the sentiments so grown-up, that the story's forward momentum never wanes' -- Spectator 'Utterly unsentimental and warmly confirmatory of the resilience of the human spirit' -- Daily Mail 'What a heart swell of a book, so much wisdom and compassion, loveliness and sadness in it' -- Nikki Gemmell 'Magic...Robertson's prose is seamless, seductive and a joy to read' -- West Australian 'Anything but careless in its sophisticated communication of uplifting and degrading events and its illumination of the human heart' -- Canberra Times 'Deborah Robertson dissects human emotion in ways dark and provocative. She exposes the nakedness of emotion, the viscera of pain' -- The Age 'With a prize-winning volume of short stories behind her, Robertson is an experienced writer. Yet little could have prepared her previous readers for the ambition, intelligence and confidence of structural touch of CARELESS. Already, it is one of Australia's novels of the year' -- BulletinMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
210 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-340-93824-9 (9780340938249)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Deborah Robertson was born in Bridgetown, Western Australia. Her first book, Proudflesh, won the Steele Rudd award for the best Australian short story collection in its year of publication, and her stories have been published widely. She teaches writing at Murdoch University and lives in the port of Fremantle.