Caravan Thieves - Softcover

Woodward, Gerard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099474778 ISBN 13: 9780099474777

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2009

Synopsis

Most of these vivid and unsettling stories are rooted in apparently everyday lives and situations, but suddenly become surreal or disturbing. Reading them feels as though you’re walking along in the real world and suddenly you step off an edge into a void, where rules of gravity and normality have disappeared but life carries on. Full of Woodward’s trademark mix of humour, pathos, dysfunctional families and disappointed lives, they contain also dazzling moments of illumination, perfect imagery and intimations of mortality.

The title comes from the story “Rape,” where a caravan (a nice Fleetwood Marauder) seems to have been lifted from its regular berth at Glenmore Caravan Park in the middle of the night to land with its occupants in a field in the middle of nowhere — which leads to unaccustomed and violent fantasies.
From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

About the Author:

Gerard Woodward is the author of an acclaimed sequence of novels: August (shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award), I’ll Go to Bed at Noon (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize) and A Curious Earth. He published several prize-winning collections of poetry before turning to fiction. He teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University.
From the Hardcover edition.

Review:

"He writes with subtlety and skill... beautifully manipulating the language which veers and soars from the vernacular to the high-flown and summoning characters that are at once believable and sympathetic" * Daily Telegraph * "Extremely readable and enjoyable" * Guardian * "Brilliantly unsettling" * Observer * "In clean, uncomplicated prose inlaid with images of striking lyricism, Woodward explores the bizarre possibilities of ordinary people's lives" * Sunday Telegraph * "The down-to-earth dialogue and the deadpan delivery remain doggedly realistic, and some stories retain not only the ring of truth but also its open-ended structure" * Times Literary Supplement *

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0099474778
• ISBN 13: 9780099474777
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352