According to Ruth
1st Edition
Published on 29. February 2012
224 pages
978-1-4070-1877-5 (ISBN)
Description
It is 1979 and in a ramshackle cottage in Northumberland fifteen-year-old Ruth is desperate to leave behind the gradual implosion of her parents' marriage as she pursues her own quest for love and excitement. Fantasies about the son of the local farmer offer a temporary distraction from the rising tensions at home but Ruth soon discovers that the family are coming to terms with a very different tragedy...
Told largely from the darkly humorous perspective of Ruth, Jane Feaver's novel is an engaging and profound insight into the relationships within families and the nature of love and loss, of grief and grieving.
Told largely from the darkly humorous perspective of Ruth, Jane Feaver's novel is an engaging and profound insight into the relationships within families and the nature of love and loss, of grief and grieving.
Reviews / Votes
Poetic and perceptive, Feaver has delivered a raw account of martial disintegration and its bruising after effects * Guardian * Jane Feaver's debut novel is an emotionally accurate portrayal... She has nailed the relationships between the children precisely and with humour -- Lisa Gee * Independent * This is a first novel of extraordinary intelligence and charm ... It's a bleak enough narrative, but also extremely funny * The Times * An intimate portrait of a bohemian family in the sticks - great stuff -- Blake Morrison * Guardian * This is a memorable debut - and a confident book...There are no easy laughs, no sentimentality. Feaver is witty and inventive. Above all, she is sufficiently daring to allow truth and memory freedom to shape scenes that convince. The choreography is seamless, each character lives off the page and the narrative is an inevitable as it is unpredictable -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * As a portrait of a time and a place, it's pitch-perfect... Most memorable is Feaver's language - burnished and sturdily poetic, with a saving comic streak -- Hepzibah Anderson * Observer * Feaver writes almost entirely without cliche ... brilliantly conveying the multiplicity of viewpoints within a family as well as the locked-in, awkward consciousness of her characters -- Claire Allfree * Metro * This is an excellent debut. Feaver has the fluency of a fast writer, her images are original and startling...you're in for a stimulating and bumpy ride. We shall see more of her * Spectator * Built around the intertwining and often similar lives of its characters, According To Ruth offers a delicate and innocent tale of childhood as well as a moving account of failed expectations and grief -- Claire Dupuy * Belfast Telegraph *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
File size
0,24 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4070-1877-5 (9781407018775)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Jane Feaver was born in Durham in 1964. After reading English at university she worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum and then in the Poetry Department at Faber and Faber. In 2001 she moved to Devon with her daughter. Her second novel, Love Me Tender, was met with critical acclaim.
