Under the Mountain - Hardcover

Cooke, Sophie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091799449 ISBN 13: 9780091799441

Publisher: Hutchinson, 2008

Synopsis

From the author of The Glass House, a remarkable and thought-provoking book about domestic politics and first loves; an intelligent and beautifully-written novel that exposes hidden inner lives to reveal their sometimes devastating consequences.

About this title

About the Author:

Sophie Cooke began her writing career in 2000, aged 23, when she wrote the short story Why You Should Not Put Your Hand Through The Ice. Her story won runner-up prize in the MacAllan / Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition, which was then the biggest short story award in Europe. The prize money enabled Cooke to cut back her hours as a barmaid on Glasgow's Great Western Road and write more short stories, which appeared in anthologies. Her first novel, The Glass House, was published to critical acclaim in 2004 and shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award. Under the Mountain, her new novel, likewise takes the Scottish Highlands as its setting: the country house in which it is set is based on the house in which Cooke lived as a small child. Cooke was educated mainly at McLaren High School in Callander, with brief spells at boarding schools on scholarships. She studied social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Cooke now lives in Berlin, where she is working on her third novel. She also writes poetry and continues to produce short stories.

Review:

"It is Cooke's dual ability to pick apart beautifully the daytime details of cosy family life while also exploring much loftier themes of God, truth, memory and love that set her aside as a mature, intensely emotional and intelligent writer" * Sunday Times * "This is a complex, clever novel which on the whole succeeds in its high ambitions" * Time Out * "Sublime writing... Cooke is excellent on unspoken family tensions and her characters' psychological motivations always ring true with a density that recalls Virginia Woolf. Of the younger generation of Scottish writers being published now, Cooke is one of the best." * Scottish Review of Books * "A wise, ambitious and involving work flowering in psychological insight, it leaves less nuanced epics in its shade" * Kevin MacNeil, author of The Stornoway Way *

About this edition

• Publisher: Hutchinson
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0091799449
• ISBN 13: 9780091799441
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384