Red Dancer - Softcover

Richard Skinner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571215599 ISBN 13: 9780571215591

Publisher: FABER & FABER INC *, 2002

Synopsis

Mixing fiction and nonfiction, Skinner breathes new imaginative life into the story of a twentieth century icon. Bewitched by the beauty of a troupe of native dancers and the strange music of the gamelan, Margaretha changes her name to Mata Hari and goes to Paris, where she is drawn into a web of espionage resulting in her death by firing squad.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Skinner is the author of a previous novel, The Red Dancer, which was translated into seven languages. He has also published a collection of poetry, the light user scheme, and a writer's handbook, Fiction Writing. A translation of The Velvet Gentleman was shortlisted in France for the Prix Livres & Musiques. He is Director of the Fiction Programme at Faber Academy.

Review

'Not quite a biography, nor exactly a novel... an impressionistic collage of imagined and researched material, an original and absorbing version of a cryptic life.' Daily Telegraph 'A fictionalised life of Mata Hari that tentatively, delicately and poignantly fills in the person behind the myth... Her story is told by multiple narrators, people who crossed her path but hardly knew her, so that her own perspective lingers in shadow, glinting here and there in hints... the mystery makes the woman, a self-indulgent lover of luxury without practical virtues, seem that much more vulnerable.' Observer '[The Red Dancer] eschews sensationalism in favour of an elegant understatedness that lends gravitas to a sad and complex tale.' Big Issue

Edition details

• Publisher: FABER & FABER INC *
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571215599
• ISBN 13: 9780571215591
• Binding: Paperback