Lighthousekeeping - Hardcover

Winterson, Jeanette

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151011176 ISBN 13: 9780151011179

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005

Synopsis

My mother called me Silver. I was born part precious metal, part pirate.

Orphaned and anchorless, Silver is taken in by blind Mr. Pew, the mysterious and miraculously old keeper of the Cape Wrath lighthouse. Pew tells Silver ancient tales of longing and rootlessness, of journeys that move through place and time, of passion and betrayal. His stories center on Babel Dark, a local nineteenth-century clergyman who lived two lives: a public one mired in darkness and a private one bathed in a beacon of light. Pew's stories are, for Silver, a map through her own particular darkness, into her own story and, finally, into love.
With Lighthousekeeping, Winterson begins a new cycle and a return to the lyrical intimacy of her earliest work. One of the most original and extraordinary writers of her generation, Winterson has created a modern fable about the transformative power of storytelling.

About this title

Book Description:

Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 2005, 0151011176

From the Back Cover:

"An inspired meditation on myth and language." --The New Yorker

Lighthousekeeping tells the tale of Silver ("My mother called me Silver. I was born part precious metal part pirate."), an orphaned girl who is taken in by the blind Mr. Pew, the mysterious and miraculously old keeper of a lighthouse on the Scottish coast. Pew tells Silver stories of Babel Dark, a nineteenth-century clergyman. Dark lives two lives: a public one mired in darkness and deceit, and a private one bathed in the light of passionate love. For Silver, Dark s life becomes a map through her own darkness, into her own story, and finally, into love.
"Pew's yarns, and later Silver's, are not just about love and loss . . . but about narrative itself, and the ways in which life refuses to conform to the boundaries of a story, just as desire rebels at the limits of the world." Village Voice

"Intimate, romantic, elegant and charmingly literary, Winterson s new novel is a poetic narrative that reaffirms the power of storytelling to provide hope when times are most desperate, and to give life--and light--when matters seem most dark." Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Winterson weaves a beautiful and coherent tapestry . . . she achieves a quality that justly can be called visionary." Los Angeles Times

Jeanette Winterson is the author of eight novels, a short-story collection, a book of essays, and a children s picture book. She has won numerous awards, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, the John Llewelyn Rhys Prze, and the E. M. Forster Award. She lives in Oxfordshire and London.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0151011176
• ISBN 13: 9780151011179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232