A History of Silence: A Family Memoir - Hardcover

Jones, Lloyd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848549067 ISBN 13: 9781848549067

Publisher: John Murray, 2014

Synopsis

"A daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today."—The Guardian

"Jones' rejection of isolationism and imaginative embrace of so much that the world has to offer make him a literary figure to watch."—Los Angeles Times

"A knockout... a fresh and immaculately paced study of the process by which old information becomes new, and one of the bravest and best-written memoirs I have read." -The Telegraph

A powerful and unexpected memoir from the author of the best-selling Man Booker Prize–shortlisted Mister Pip.

As the New Zealand city of Christchurch lies in ruins after the catastrophic earthquake of February 2011, Lloyd Jones begins a search for his past, a search that takes him through childhood memories of puzzling events to Pembroke Dock in Wales, and finally to the discovery of a devastating court transcript.

On this extraordinary journey, he pieces together the fragments of a story that has been buried in his family for a lifetime. A mother who gave up her daughter, a naval captain drowned at sea, a marriage to save a child.

And a truth that changes everything.

Lloyd Jones was born in New Zealand in 1955. His best-known novel is the international bestseller Mister Pip, which won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the 2008 Kiriyama Prize Fiction Category, the 2008 Montana Award for Readers Choice, the Montana Fiction Award, and the Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and has been made into a major feature film starring Hugh Laurie (House). Lloyd Jones lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

About this title

About the Author:

Lloyd Jones was born in New Zealand in 1955. His best-known novel is Mister Pip, which won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the 2008 Kiriyama Prize Fiction Category, the 2008 Montana Award for Readers Choice, the Montana Fiction Award and the Montana Medal for Fiction or Poetry. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and has been made into a major feature film, directed by Andrew Adamson (Shrek and Narnia). His other books include Hand Me Down World, The Book of Fame—which won the Deutz Medal for Fiction at the 2001 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize—Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance and Biografi. He has also published a collection of short stories, The Man in the Shed. Lloyd Jones lives in Wellington.

Review:

'Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today.'
Guardian

'Lloyd Jones is a master storyteller.'
Weekend Australian

'It would be difficult to think of another novelist as original or fearless as Lloyd Jones.'
Monthly

'Poetically observed detail and an affecting evocation of the past will reward readers interested in the way our history (even, or especially, that which we don’t know about) can shape us.'
Bookseller and Publisher


'Jones is a daring writer who can be relied on to ignore expectation, and is becoming one of the most interesting, honest and thought-provoking novelists working today.'
Guardian

'Lloyd Jones is a master storyteller.'
Weekend Australian

'It would be difficult to think of another novelist as original or fearless as...Lloyd Jones.'
Monthly

'Poetically observed detail and an affecting evocation of the past will reward readers interested in the way our history (even, or especially, that which we don’t know about) can shape us.'
Bookseller and Publisher

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1848549067
• ISBN 13: 9781848549067
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256