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ISBN: 9780063091009

Content: " Now available in the US8212 the literary novel that has taken Britain by storm! In the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett8212 an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion.With wit and dry humor...quietly affecting in unexpected ways. Chambers' language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details.8212 The New York TimesLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It's a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape. That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen's gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives...with unimaginable consequences. Both a mystery and a love story, Small Pleasures is a literary tour-de-force in the style of The Remains of the Day, about conflict between personal fulfillment and duty,a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable. "

Content: Rezension(1): "New York Times:With wit and dry humor...quietly affecting in unexpected ways. Chambers' language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details." Rezension(2): " Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things :Small Pleasures is a tender and heart-rending tale that will draw you in from the first page and keep you gripped until the very end. Exquisitely compelling!" Rezension(3): " David Nicholls, bestselling author of One Day160" Rezension(4): " Hephzibah Anderson,160" Rezension(5): " Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Sunday Times :Small Pleasures is an almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish. Written in prose that is clipped as closely as suburban hedges, this is a book about seemingly mild people concealing turbulent feelings" Rezension(6): " Kathleen MacMahon, The Irish Times :A brilliant book... A love story between people who are not usually the leading players in love story... I found it incredibly absorbing." Rezension(7): "〈a href=http://lj.libraryjournal.com/ target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/libraryjournal_logo.png alt=Library Journal border=0 /〉〈/a〉: May 1, 2021 In late 1950s England, nearly 40 Jean Swinney is resigned to her scant opportunities as a reporter at a local paper in London's southeastern suburbs and the ongoing burdens of caring for a querulous widowed mother. Then young Gretchen Tilbury contacts the paper, claiming that her daughter resulted from a virgin birth, and Jean senses a career-making story. Soon, she's intimately involved with the Tilbury family as well. A huge hit in the UK,with a 50,000-copy first printing. Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission. " Rezension(8): "〈a href=http://www.publishersweekly.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/pw_logo.png alt=Publisher's Weekly border=0 /〉〈/a〉: August 30, 2021 In Chambers’s affecting latest (after the YA mystery Burning Secrets ), the year is 1957 and Jean Swinney is a single Englishwoman approaching 40 who cares for her demanding mother and lives for the small pleasures in life—like pottering in her vegetable patch or loosening her girdle at the end of the day. Jean works as features editor for the North Kent Echo . Her new assignment is to interview Gretchen Tilbury, who claims to have delivered a child through virgin birth. Wanting to keep an open mind, Jean meets with the no-nonsense Gretchen, who was confined to an all-female nursing home, St. Cecilia’s, with rheumatoid arthritis at the time of conception. Jean also meets Gretchen’s charming 10-year-old daughter, Margaret, and her dedicated husband, Howard. Jean arranges for Gretchen and Margaret to undergo medical tests at Charing Cross Hospital to prove if parthenogenesis actually took place. As the months pass, Jean becomes more and more enmeshed in the lives of the Tilbury family even as her friendship with Howard threatens to turn into something more. Chambers does an excellent job of recreating the austere texture of post-WWII England. In Jean, the author creates a character who strives admirably to escape her cloistered existence. Chambers plays fair with Gretchen’s mystery, tenderly illuminating the hidden yearnings of small lives." Rezension(9): "〈a href=http://www.kirkusreviews.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/kirkus_logo.png alt=Kirkus border=0 /〉〈/a〉: September 1, 2021 In the spirit of Barbara Pym's novels and the classic film Brief Encounters, Chambers provides an updated portrait of the vaunted British upper lip and its associated postwar values. When the suburban North Kent Echo runs a story on parthenogenesis in small animals, it gets a curious letter to the editor in response: I have always believed my own daughter (now ten) to have been born without the involvement of any man, writes Mrs. Gretchen Tilbury of Sidcup. When the opportunity arises to investigate this intriguing virgin birth, Jean Swinney is eager to take on the assignment,it will be a nice distraction from her usual humdrum work. Given the social patterns of 1950s Britain, Jean's beat consists chiefly of feature pieces of appeal to housewives, money-saving tips, recipes, and the like. Jean's personal life is equally nonstimulating, as she shares a joyless home with her agoraphobic and needy mother, and she finds a welcome respite in her growing attachment to the Tilbury family. As clues to the mystery of Our Lady of Sidcup gradually reveal themselves to Jean, she finds herself in a relationship that might provide her with a last chance at domestic contentment. An awareness of the high cost of that potential happiness weighs heavily on Jean, and a bittersweet aura pervades Chambers' gentle sketch of an unassuming, highly intelligent woman daring to contravene convention. In a departure from similar, yet tamer, depictions of postwar English life, Chambers acknowledges a broad range of human experience. Jean's foibles, along with those of her irksome mother and other characters, are presented with sympathy, but readers in search of comfortable solutions will have to reassess their need to tie everything up with a vintage-style bow. Chambers' tone is sweet, which is not the same as saccharine. COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. " Rezension(10): "〈a href=https://www.booklistonline.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/booklist_logo.png alt=Booklist border=0 /〉〈/a〉: September 1, 2021 Can Gretchen Tilbury's tale about her 10-year-old daughter be true, and if so, how is it scientifically possible? In 1957, reporter Jean Swinney, 40, has a tedious home life caring for her irritable, reclusive mother. In investigating a claim of parthenogenesis, a virgin birth, for her suburban London newspaper, Jean sees her world unexpectedly transformed. Surprisingly, she finds no apparent holes in Gretchen's story. Gretchen had been bedridden in a clinic alongside others when Margaret was conceived. As mother and daughter undergo laboratory tests to prove or debunk the hypothesis, Jean's intrinsic loneliness leads her to respond to the Tilburys' friendly overtures. Margaret is a charming girl, and Howard, Gretchen's older husband, has a disarming manner that attracts Jean. As Jean's personal and professional circles become enmeshed, the plot takes dramatic, even shocking turns. British novelist Chambers penetrates the secret hopes and passionate inner lives of ordinary working people throughout her gripping novel, while its locked-room medical mystery calls to mind Emma Donoghue's The Wonder (2016). The characters provoke so much empathy, readers may have trouble remembering that they're fictional. COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. "

Language: English

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