The Pure Gold Baby - Softcover

Drabble, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443425362 ISBN 13: 9781443425360

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

Synopsis

The first new novel in five years from “one of the most versatile and accomplished writers of her generation” (Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker)

Jessica Speight, a young anthropology student in 1960s London, is at the beginning of a promising academic career when an affair with her married professor turns her into a single mother. Anna is a pure gold baby with a delightful, sunny nature, but it soon becomes clear that she will not be a normal child. As readers are drawn deeper into Jessica’s world, they are confronted with questions of responsibility, potential, even age, all with Margaret Drabble’s characteristic intelligence, sympathy and wit.

Drabble once wrote, “Family life itself, that safest, most traditional, most approved of female choices, is not a sanctuary; it is, perpetually, a dangerous place.” Told from the point of view of the group of mothers who surround Jess, The Pure Gold Baby is a brilliant, prismatic novel thattakes us into that place with satiric verve, trenchant commentary, and a movingly intimate story of the unexpected transformations at the heart of motherhood.

About this title

Book Description

HMH hardcover, 2013, previous ISBN 978-0-544-15890-0

From the Back Cover

“An unexpected gift from a great author. How do we treat the child who walks among us in a different way than most? In Margaret Drabble’s hands the answer is with a depth of empathy few master.” — Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones

Jessica Speight, an anthropologist in 1960s London, is beginning a promising academic career when an affair leaves her a single mother. Anna is delightful—a pure gold baby. But as it becomes clear that Anna is not a normal child, the book circles questions of responsibility, potential, even age, with Margaret Drabble’s characteristic intelligence and wit. Told from the point of view of Jess’s fellow mothers, The Pure Gold Baby is a movingly intimate look at the unexpected transformations at the heart of motherhood.

“Meditative . . . I’m so glad that Margaret Drabble, like her characters, just decided to keep on going.” — Meg Wolitzer, NPR’s All Things Considered

“A closely observed group portrait of female friends, a patient insight into the joys and pains of motherhood, and an image of how society has changed and how it has not.” — Harper’s Magazine

Margaret Drabble is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, and The Peppered Moth, among other novels. She has written biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson, and is the editor of the fifth and sixth editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, Drabble was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.
 

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1443425362
• ISBN 13: 9781443425360
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304