So Many Ways to Begin - Hardcover

McGregor, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0747579466 ISBN 13: 9780747579465

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 2006

Synopsis

David Carter cannot help but wish for more: that his wife Eleanor would be the sparkling girl he once found so irresistible; that his job as a museum curator could live up to the promise it once held; that his daughter's arrival could have brought him closer to Eleanor. But a few careless words spoken by his mother's friend have left David restless with the knowledge that his whole life has been constructed around a lie.

About this title

About the Author

Twice Booker-nominated Jon McGregor is the author of the critically acclaimed If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, winner of the Betty Trask Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award, and, most recently, Even the Dogs. He was born in Bermuda in 1976, grew up in Norfolk, and now lives in Nottingham, England.

Review

“Jon McGregor is a writer who will make a significant stamp on world literature. In fact, he already has.” ―Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

“[A] solemly lyrical novel...With grace and almost painful sensitivity, McGregor constructs a detailed character study that is also a meditation on the elusive nature of identity.” ―Boston Globe

“In this elegantly written novel, McGregor focuses on the interpersonal and the emotional, successfully dramatizing the impact of events on people's lives.” ―Library Journal

“The search for home and for connection lies at the center of this slow, cadenced novel, which invests one man's day-to-day life with remarkable dignity.” ―Booklist (starred)

“David Carter grows up happy in post-WWII Coventry, England, where he combs bomb sites for things to collect and dreams of one day running his own museum. He lands a job at a local museum and, at age 22, learns from a mentally ill family friend that he was adopted as an infant. Irate and bewildered, David struggles to comprehend "how such a lie had been incorporated into official history" as he begins his adult life. His marriage to Eleanor provides some direction, but the couple is often rudderless, and McGregor (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) charts with a calculated dreariness David's frustrated attempts to locate his birth mother, Eleanor's terrible depressions, their professional letdowns, a few moments of happiness and the way "it wasn't what they'd imagined, this life." Once retired, David is introduced to the Internet, which yields a promising lead in his quest to find his birth mother. Melancholy permeates every page; readers looking for an earnest downer can't go wrong.” ―Publishers Weekly

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0747579466
• ISBN 13: 9780747579465
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 343