Lorelei's Secret - Softcover

Carolyn Parkhurst

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340827939 ISBN 13: 9780340827932

Publisher: Sceptre, 2004

Synopsis

Sometimes love can speak louder than words ...Paul Iverson's life is stable, orderly and dull - until he meets Lexy and her Rhodesian Ridgeback dog, Lorelei. From their first date, Lexy sweeps him off his feet and brings him passion, adventure and love. But one afternoon, Lexy climbs the apple tree in their backyard and falls to her death. Heartbroken, Paul cannot believe it was an accident and sets out to uncover the truth, with the help of the only creature who saw what happened, Lorelei. What follows is both comic and deeply touching as Paul tries to divine Lorelei's secret. And in his attempts to teach her to communicate, Paul revisits his often tempestuous romance with Lexy, learning things about his wife that he could never have imagined. "Lorelei's Secret" is a spellbinding novel that will win the heart of every reader with its story of unending love, loss and the lengths that people will go to when driven by grief and hope.

About this title

About the Author:

Carolyn Parkhurst is the author of three novels: Lorelei's Secret (published in the US as The Dogs of Babel) and Lost and Found, which were both New York Times bestsellers, and The Nobodies Album. In 2010, she published her first children's book, Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. Born in New Hampshire, she lives in Washington, DC with her husband and their two children.

Review:

a charming, tender study in grief * Marian Keyes, The Week * Carolyn Parkhurst's startling, achingly compelling first novel ... Part mystery, part thriller and all love story, this is a painfully evocative work, and Parkhurst is that rare thing - a "promising new talent" who turns out to be exactly that * Sunday Business Post * This is the kind of book you stay up all night to finish * Image * Every once in a while a book comes along that knocks you for six. Lorelei's Secret is just such a novel. It made me laugh and cry and most importantly, avidly read until the last page * ABTA * The most unique and imaginative book I have read in recent times. Parkhurst is a wonderful writer and her story is daring, tender and full of surprises as well as wisdom and insight. I simply could not put it down. * John Searles, author of 'Boy Still Missing'; Senio * Shimmers with idiosyncratic intrigue . . . a humanistic parable of the heart's confusions. * Entertainment Weekly * Carolyn Parkhurst's 'Lorelei's Secret' --so luminous, heartbreaking, comic, and daring--is an astonishing debut. Parkhurst writes of love and loss, and, above all, of what we can and cannot know of one another, with power and deeply earned grace. * Richard McCann, author of 'Ghost Letters' * Carolyn Parkhurst writes as well about talking dogs and square eggs as she does about the limits of language and the intractable mysteries of the self. 'Lorelei's Secret' is a strange, beautiful and very moving novel that asks us to look, in equal measure, at the puzzle that is grief and the puzzle that is love. * Elizabeth Graver, author of 'The Honey Thief' and * A quirky and endearing love triangle * Marie Claire (US) * Part love story, part psychological thriller and a thumping good read * Livewire * This tightly woven tale has all the right stuff: romance, suspense, fantasy, and an ending that does not disappoint. * Red magazine (US) * A heartbreaking exploration of memory and language, grief and redemption * Esquire * Wonderfully inventive and slyly funny * Alexei Sayle, Telegraph Book of the Year * Captivatingly strange ... perilously adorable * New York Times * An extraordinarily moving novel, poised halfway between a lament and a mystery ... A novel to be read in one sitting, LORELEI'S SECRET is one of this summer's "must read" books * Big Issue (in the North) * Mesmerising and unusual ... The book is beautifully written and, alongside thriller-like elements, packs a powerful emotional punch * Good Housekeeping * Prepare to have your heart smashed into melancholy pieces * Elle * A shimmering fictional portrait of love and loss * Scotsman * One of those rare novels ... that intrigues, pulls on the heartstrings and confuses you all at once * Time Out * 'If you like a tear-jerker with a twist you'll adore this. In the vein of Maggie O'Farrell's After You'd Gone, it deals with the loss of a loved one' - Glamour Inventive and gripping ... Parkhurst handles the quest formula with originality and humour * Literary Review *

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0340827939
• ISBN 13: 9780340827932
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288