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Original writing is difficult to define but easy to spot. Award-winning author Rachel Cusk, one of Grantas Best of Young British Novelists, has a style that is uncluttered by modern whims. Its crisp and clear but full of depth and nuance; dark and brooding but light and witty at the same time.
Michael lives in Bath with his skittish wife Rebecca and their strangely uncommunicative young son in a beautiful Georgian terraced house given to them by his in-laws--whose need to control other peoples lives bears more than a passing resemblance to the family of an old university chum, Adam Hanbury. When Adams larger-than-life, opinionated father develops prostrate cancer, Michael is persuaded to help with the lambing on the familys remote farm, Egypt Hill, where a menagerie of animals, wives and ex-wives, children and grand-children collide rather than co-exist with one another.
While there is little "plot" to speak of, this is a book about the complex relationships of families and the emotional needs of modern living. The stark writing manages to lay bare the souls of the main characters, providing rare insights. Never preaching, nor condescending, Cusk allows her reader to appreciate the multiple layers of personality and the hit and miss nature of human interaction--some of which makes no sense but works against the odds, and others which slowly but surely destroy everything in their wake. While Cusk will never appeal to those looking for one dimensional storylines with cardboard characters, this beautifully, sparingly written gem is sure to delight the discerning reader. --Carey Green
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From Publishers Weekly
Real estate trumps true love in this often hilarious, British black comedy of manners and property values. After the second-story balcony of London lawyer Michael's townhouse crashes at his feet, nearly killing him, he decides to take a holiday to sort out his unhappy life. His wife, Rebecca, miserable with motherhood and marriage, is glad to see him and their introverted three-year-old, Hamish, hie off to the fine old country farm of Michael's university friend Adam Hansbury. But all is not well at Egypt, the oddly named Hansbury estate. Patriarch Paul is hospitalized, but no one visits him; his audacious ex-wife (Adam's mother) remains a frequent guest at her former home, where Paul's current wife doles out money, food and complaint to the malcontent step- and grandchildren who come and go. Even Adam is acting strangely. As the discord among the Hansburys escalates to violence and revenge, Michael becomes privy to a secret that unites the family where love and filial piety failed. Whitbread-winner Cusk (The Country Life, etc.) serves up crisp prose full of the unexpected pleasures of observation and metaphor, but this is a book about clever people behaving venally, and as such, the only person to really root for is poor silent Hamish.
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