Paradise
1st Edition
Published on 31. October 2010
352 pages
978-1-4090-5818-2 (ISBN)
Description
Almost forty and with nothing to show for it, Hannah Luckraft is starting to notice that her lifestyle is not entirely sustainable: her subconscious is turning against her, her soul is a little unwell. Her family is wounded, her friends are odd, her body is not as reliable as it once was and her drinking is frankly out of hand. Robert, a dissolute dentist, appears to offer a love she can understand, but he may only be one more symptom of the problem she must cure. From the north-east of Scotland to Dublin, from London to Montreal, to Budapest and onwards, Hannah travels in search of the ultimate altered state: the one where she can be happy - her paradise.
Paradise is a compelling examination of failure that is also a comic triumph, a novel of dark extremes that is full of the most ravishing lyrical beauty.
Paradise is a compelling examination of failure that is also a comic triumph, a novel of dark extremes that is full of the most ravishing lyrical beauty.
Reviews / Votes
A brave and uncompromising book that lingers in the mind, Paradise is A.L. Kennedy on top form * Independent * This is a narrative that will not let the reader go - One of the most linguistically inventive and captivating British writers of the age * Observer * The book sings its encapsulated pain with the effervescent energy of laughter * The Times * Beautifully written...Her sharpest vision yet * Guardian * One of Britain's most iconoclastic and fiercely independent talents, a writer who repeatedly tests our expectations... Compelling, even consuming * Daily Telegraph * A writer of great power and subtlety, a specialist chronicler of depression... alcohol addiction, yearning and loss * Sunday Telegraph * Every sentence of Kennedy's fluid prose is to be savoured... An unflinching book, elevated by the sublime quality of Kennedy's writing. Lacerating comedy is pitted against passages of sheer beauty * Independent on Sunday * Kennedy's lyrical evocation of the mind of an alcoholic draws on, and slyly subverts, a long distinguished tradition of hard-drinking narratives in Scottish literature, from Alasdair Gray to Irvine Welsh * London Review of Books * In Paradise, A.L Kennedy weaves her word magic around one woman's determined embrace of alcohol * Rowan Pelling, New Statesman * A stylist of the highest order * Financial Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
File size
0,46 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4090-5818-2 (9781409058182)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards - including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.
