Anita Brookner was born in London and, apart from several years in Paris, has lived there ever since. She trained as an art historian and taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art until 1988. Leaving Home is her twenty-third novel.
"A small gem of clarity and intensity. Her latest, Leaving Home, promises--and delivers--the savory experience devotees of Brookner have come to crave." —The Baltimore Sun"Yet another delicious reading experience. Her elegant prose and psychological acuity are fully on display. . . . As a narrator Emma is both clear-eyed and honest--often achingly so." —The Christian Science Monitor"Beautiful, piercingly elegant." —New York Times Book Review“It’s hard to pinpoint how Brookner’s world differs from the one we know, since the minute we begin reading her fiction, we lose our awareness of the boundaries that separate us from the people whose often circumscribed lives she is so deftly describing. . . . Admirable and refreshing.” —Bookforum
Emma Roberts, a subdued, introverted graduate student, leaves the cloistered world she has shared with her reclusive mother in 1970s London to study formal garden design in Paris. Here, despite her loner inclinations, she is befriended by wild-girl librarian Francoise, whose family owns a country mansion but is hampered by financial worries. Booker Prize winner Brookner's (Hotel du Lac) carefully drawn heroine is a study in understatement, with a cautious inner life that may for some readers evoke Jane Austen, minus the humor. After Emma's mother dies suddenly, Emma is forced to analyze her relationship to her childhood, to the men she's met, and to Francoise. Ultimately, the novel traces its heroine's gradual understanding of herself and her place in the world. She's as strictly defined as the gardens she studies and a fascinatingly subtle character. Recommended.-Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
"A small gem of clarity and intensity. Her latest, Leaving Home, promises--and delivers--the savory experience devotees of Brookner have come to crave." -The Baltimore Sun"Yet another delicious reading experience. Her elegant prose and psychological acuity are fully on display. . . . As a narrator Emma is both clear-eyed and honest--often achingly so." -The Christian Science Monitor"Beautiful, piercingly elegant." -New York Times Book Review"It's hard to pinpoint how Brookner's world differs from the one we know, since the minute we begin reading her fiction, we lose our awareness of the boundaries that separate us from the people whose often circumscribed lives she is so deftly describing. . . . Admirable and refreshing." -Bookforum
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
