About the Author

Penelope Lively has written many prize-winning novels for adults and children. They include The Road to Lichfield, According To Mark. Moon Tiger (which won the 1987 Booker Prize), Heatwave and Spiderweb. Penelope Lively lives in London N1.

Reviews

One of Lively's most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Lively's [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. It's another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as life's messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")

One of Lively s most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Lively s [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. It s another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as life s messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")

One of Livelyas most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Livelyas [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. Itas another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as lifeas messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")

One of Livelys most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Livelys [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. Its another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as lifes messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")

"Blessed with the gift of being to render matters of great importance with a breath, a barely audible sigh, a touch. The result is wonderful writing."

Lively likes historians. Her most famous novel on this side of the Atlantic, the Booker Prize-winning Moon Tiger, told the story of a popular historian; her latest narrates the quest of a "landscape historian" in search of what Proust called "lost time": the living past of his dead wife. Glyn Peters, a famous British archeologist, discovers a compromising photograph of his wife, Katherine Targett, sealed in an envelope in a closet at home. Peters specializes in excavating the long defunct gardens, buried fields and covered-over roads of the British landscape. Reverting to professional habits, he treats Kath's infidelity as a sort of archeological dig. The photo depicts Kath and Nick Hammond, the husband of Kath's sister, Elaine, surreptitiously holding hands on some outing, with Elaine and Mary Packard, Kath's best friend, in the background. Glyn decides to interview this cloud of witnesses, beginning with Elaine. Elaine is a successful, and somewhat cold, landscaper; Nick, her polar opposite, is a man one degree away from being a Wodehouse dilettante. Lively, who is never shy of letting us know her opinion of her characters (like Trollope), makes her disapprobation of Nick plain. Elaine, after learning of the affair, kicks Nick out. He takes refuge with Polly, their daughter, in London, and goes rapidly downhill. Glyn, meanwhile, has searched out Nick's ex-business partner, Oliver Watson, who took the photograph, and Mary Packard. Lively is always a discerning, keenly intelligent writer. This, for instance, is how she describes, in three irrevocable words, Elaine's pregnancy: "She is pregnant: heavy, hampered, irritable." Unfortunately, Kath, a demon-haunted beauty with little depth, remains unconjurable. Her insubstantiality and the much-foreshadowed nature of her death, not revealed until late in the novel, drains this story of its full emotional impact. 5-city pre-pub tour. (June 2) Forecast: Lively has strong name recognition, but her sales on this side of the Atlantic continue to be modest. Her latest is unlikely to break the mold, but her steady, reliable output (this is her 13th novel) should help keep her on readers' radar screens. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

One of Lively's most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Lively's [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. It's another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as life's messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")
One of Lively s most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Lively s [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. It s another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as life s messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")
One of Livelyas most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Livelyas [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. Itas another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as lifeas messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")
One of Livelys most satisfying novels: cleverly conceived, artfully constructed and executed with high intelligence and sensitivity. ("Los Angeles Times") An ingenious premise for a novel and Penelope Lively... spins it out with expert skill. ("The Washington Post") Engrossing... engaging. ("San Francisco Chronicle") Livelys [novel] maintains the high standard her fans have come to expect. Its another shining winner. ("The Boston Globe") Original... bracingly intelligent. Rarely has a subject as elusive as lifes messiness been pursued with such unflagging rigor. ("The Atlantic Monthly")
"Blessed with the gift of being to render matters of great importance with a breath, a barely audible sigh, a touch. The result is wonderful writing."