'Reader, I Married Him' - Softcover

Michèle Roberts

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860499988 ISBN 13: 9781860499982

Publisher: Virago, 2006

Synopsis

Who is Aurora? Every time she becomes a new Mrs (three times when we last counted) she becomes a new woman. Her stepmother thinks Aurora is impractical, romantic and dreamy. The fact that she gets married so often only goes to prove it. 'Every woman owes it to herself to get married once, but you don't have to make a habit of it.' But now, all alone. . . ? 'Aurora, given the chance to be true to herself, rather than to her trio of husbands, turns out to be a world-class minx. After Hugh's funeral, she goes to Italy to visit her old radical-feminist friend, Leonora, now the abbess of the Brigandine convent in Padenza. True to the tradition of convent-educated girls in fiction, Aurora flings herself into a voluptuous life of lunches and lovers. Chiselled phrasing and dancing plot . . . a sizzling firework display of a book' Sunday Times.

About this title

About the Author:

Michle Roberts is the author of eleven novels, including Daughters of the House, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize and winner of the WHSmith Literary Award, and Reader, I Married Him, also published by Pegasus Books. She lives in England.

Review:

'A triumphant tour de force' Time Out 'Michele Roberts is on sparkling form with her ludic 11th novel. Roberts has constructed a fantastical Italian city, a capriccio of the sort beloved of Italian artists of the Renaissance, and makes the setting half realistic - imbued with the smells, noises, clothes, food of Roberts' characteristically rich sensual descriptions - and half magical. . . A story that is nimble on its feet, and plays cleverly with form and expectations, cliche and counter-cliche. It also shows how emotional truths can be delivered in all sorts of packages' Financial Times 'With her sudden offbeat collisions between reality and fantasy, Robert's sensibility is reminiscent of Jeanette Winterson's, though undeniable shades of Muriel Spark prevail, of the writer fully in control of her measured, ironic tone, however much her novel froths and sparkles . . . This is Shirley Valentine meets Room with a View: an eccentric and enjoyable romp to take to Italy and savour' Guardian 'Conundrums and their answers bombard the reader like a shower of carnival confetti in a novel whose characters resemble the cast of a modern-day commedia dell'arte. The real pleasure of Roberts's writing lies. . . in the unfailing sensuality of her description of the physical world: food, flowers, buildings, clothes, sex, all portrayed in the tender, jewelled colours of a Florentine fresco' The Times 'Chiselled phrasing and dancing plot. . . A sizzling firework display of a book' Sunday Times 'A deliciously black and breezy affair, the perfect antidote to dull winter days. The scenario is that of a standard romance. . . but don't be deceived: Michele Roberts has written something altogether darker and wittier. After reading this book, Jane Eyre's famous words will never sound the same again' Mail 'Reader, I married him is an unashamed fairytale for those who think they are too fat or too old for the good things in life . . . The perfect accompaniment to an espresso and some almond cake' Telegraph 'A shrewd and pithy fable about the quest for self-knowledge' You 'Hot literary sex anyone?' Sunday Times 'Roberts is wonderfully funny about the catholic church. . . A story that is nimble on its feet, and plays cleverly with form and expectations, cliche and counter cliche' FT Magazine 'slick and clever, full of rich, sensual writing' TLS 'Reader, I married him is an ingenious divertissement, like those pretty antique snuff boxes which suddenly spring open revealing secret compartments' Sunday Herald 'Reader, I married him is an ingenious divertissement, like those pretty antique snuff boxes which suddenly spring open revealing secret compartments' Sunday Herald '[Michele Roberts'] beguiling new novel' Mirror 'Witty and provocative, sharp and insightful, this is Roberts at her best' Sainsbury's Magazine 'Quaint, but saucy' Mirror

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1860499988
• ISBN 13: 9781860499982
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240