Still Life

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession comes a highly acclaimed novel which captures in brilliant detail the life of an English family, illuminating the choices they must make between domesticity and ambition, life and art.

In this rich literary novel, A.S. Byatt takes us deep into the life of one English family in the 1950s. Ranging from the sunlit fields of Provence to the whirl of Cambridge, Still Life portrays in vivid and sensual detail the journeys of the Potter family as they each try to find their proper place in a complex universe of life and ideas. Stephanie Potter gives up a promising academic career to marry her curate husband while her sister, Frederica, enters Cambridge and her brother, Marcus, recovers from a nervous breakdown.

Still Life draws the reader irresistibly into a vibrant and densely structured world. We watch as the characters confront the conflict between responsibilities to others and the fulfillment of their own private dreams. And we experience, as though we are there, the stunning event that changes their lives forever. This is a book of distinction and a book to delight in—a thrilling journey in the company of one of the eminent writers of our time.

A.S. Byatt was the author of numerous novels, including The Children’s Book, The Biographer’s Tale, and Possession, which was awarded the Booker Prize. She also wrote two novellas, published together as Angels & Insects, five collections of short stories, and several works of nonfiction. A distinguished critic and author, and the recipient of the 2016 Erasmus Prize for her “inspiring contribution to ‘life writing,’” she died in 2023.