THE REALM OF SHELLS - Brossura

Overall

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0007184115 ISBN 13: 9780007184118

Casa editrice: Harper Perennial, 2011

Riassunto

A delicately balanced novel of childhood secrets, hidden treasure and the lengths people will go to in order to protect – or discover – what they deem valuable.

The Margate Shell Grotto really exists: a serpentine corridor decorated in swirling patterns using 50 varieties of shell, and whoever made it created an enigma that has puzzled historians and speliologists for generations. Though it has been suggested that the cave might be Phoenician in origin, the fact that most of the iconography is Egyptian and Eastern suggests a more recent, 19th century origin.

Fanny Newlove is new to Margate, the daughter of Evangelist parents and spurned by the local children as being from the 'sheers' – here, anywhere north of London is considered foreign territory. When her brother finds an entrance to a hidden grotto on land their father has been advised to buy, the discovery sets into motion events that will rock this outsider family.

The shells on the walls and the elaborate altar suggest a religious function – so why do the locals speak of buried treasure? And why does dour young writing master Davidson condemn shells as daemonic, upsetting Fanny's father's Christian sensibilities by invoking the Kabbalah's 'realm of shells', the basest plane of physical existence and hellish world of hidden devils?

As different people stake their claim to the grotto – including Fanny's father, whose principles have been outweighed by the lure of tourist money – Fanny will learn that in the adult world, the nature of value is never simple.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'This unusual novel paints an evocative picture of a life in a musty British seaside town in the 19th Century...The author conveys thoughtfully and with humour not only her young protagonist's hopes and fears but also the anachronistic outlook of her strict, god-fearing parents.' The Sunday Times

'This novel is very good indeed – confident and vividly energetic in a way that is entirely captivating...I cannot recommend this novel too highly.' Daily Telegraph

'Sonia Overall manages to tell a conventional story with remarkable originality...Her confidence is astonishing...It takes a writer of rare ability to produce a novel as good as this. She has made the grade.' Glasgow Herald

'While Fanny's voice, full of onomatopoeic accounts of household noise and incident, is thoroughly engaging, some of the best things here...are perhaps the least Victorian in character. It may be that Overall will eventually come to regard the 19th century as a constraint on her very considerable imagination.' The Independent

'An engrossing, accomplished tale of lost innocence which tiptoes elegantly towards its tragic denouement with genuine literary flair.' Easy Living

L'autore:

Sonia Overall grew up in Ely and later moved to Canterbury, where she studied Literature and Philosophy. She lives in Kent, with her husband, a fine artist. This is the author of ‘A Likeness’.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Harper Perennial
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0007184115
• ISBN 13: 9780007184118
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 354