The Road to Lichfield - Softcover

Lively, Penelope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802136257 ISBN 13: 9780802136251

Publisher: Grove Press, 1999

Synopsis

In The Road to Lichfield, Penelope Lively explores the nature of history and memory as it is embodied in the life of a forty-year-old woman, Anne Linton, who unexpectedly learns that her father had a mistress. With this new knowledge, Linton must now examine the realities of her own life - of her childhood, her husband - and ask, What do they really know of her? Deeply felt, beautifully controlled, The Road to Lichfield is a subtle exploration of memory and identity, of chance and consequence, of the intricate weave of generations across a past never fully known, a future never fully anticipated.

About this title

About the Author:

Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.

From Library Journal:

This is Lively's first novel, originally published in England in 1977. It centers around British housewife Anne, whose father is dying in a nursing home. Anne goes to see him, in Lichfield, and in the process of cleaning out his house discovers that her father was someone she hadn't known well at all. "I knew my father in one dimension only," she realizes. Her relationships with her husband, brother, and lover might be similarly described. Lively's prose is clean and readable. This novel will appeal to people who are familiar with her recent works and to those who enjoy well-written stories that convey a message without beating the reader over the head. Recommended.
- Mary Prokop, CEL Regional Lib . , Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0802136257
• ISBN 13: 9780802136251
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224