- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Arcadia Books (May 20 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1906413592
- ISBN-13: 978-1906413590
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.8 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 358 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #649,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The late 1940s and the volcanic dislocations in the aftermath of World War II serve as the setting for this dramatic exploration of postwar British life. The chance encounter of a fastidious Oxford don and a solitary German prisoner before a painting in the Ashmolean museum precipitates a mingling of the two antagonistic cultures and result in a tumultuous tangle of friendship, suspicion, desire, and yearning. The depiction of the grim circumstances of the German laborers and of the tension between the British impulse toward compassion and the desire for reparations are etched with memorable sharpness. This drama of lingering antagonisms, nascent reconciliation, and obsessive love demonstrates the considerable gifts of a master storyteller and keen observations of the human condition.
About the Author
Francis King is president emeritus of International PEN, a drama critic for the Sunday Telegraph, and the author of 28 novels, including Dead Letters, The Nick of Time (long-listed for the Booker Prize), Sunshine in the Garden, and With My Little Eye.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A moving and poignant novel, Nov 1 2010
By Kiwifunlad - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Cold Snap (Paperback)
This is the first novel I have read by Francis King and it was an easy page turner as the story effortlessly evolved. King is obviously a prolific novelist as this is his 50th book.
The blurb written by Arcadia at the back of the novel gives most emphasis to Michael the gay Fellow, of predictably, an Oxford College. This is misleading as the central plot revolves around Christine an undergraduate and her affair with Thomas, a German Prisoner of War. Perhaps Arcadia had eyes on the pink readership when in the blurb it states "Soon Michael has become profoundly attached to Klaus...". Certainly not a principal theme of this novel!
The bulk of the book is set in 1947 Oxford, King writes with a clear style and his characters are very credible and interesting. The mood between the English and the German POW's is extremely well written and often it felt like reading a work of non-fiction as to the different way the various characters reacted to Christine's relationship with Thomas. The second and third parts of the book set in 1950 and 1983 were less interesting and something of a letdown after the build up of the tension in the first part. Christine's visit to see her father near the end of the first part of the book was also somewhat clumsy and a little implausible.
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