The Land Of Nightingales

Jul 1, 2025 5:57 AM

Author:Sally Stewart

1919 - when Phoebe Maynard - after her mother had died - found the old journal in the attic it reminded her of several things -of her early childhood growing up in Spain, of her father's distress whenever she spoke of that country, and of her mother's long years of fretful ill-health once they had returned to their Oxfordshire manor house.Phoebe, and her sister, Lydia, had never understood why the 'land of nightingales' was such an emotive subject within the family, but when their father died it suddenly became clear.His will revealed that Phoebe and Lydia had a Spanish half-brother - Juan Rodriguez.

It seemed that Juan was as shocked as they were by his foreign connections and was determined to have nothing to do with his English relatives - but the blood-tie was there.

As Phoebe and Lydia finally found a happiness of their own in England, the past constantly intruded on their tranquil lives.It was when young Holly, Phoebe's orphaned niece-by-marriage, came onto the scene that the two worlds met and exploded into an emotional turmoil that was to be made even more violent as Holly and Juan found themselves caught up in the turbulence of the Spanish Civil War.

Reviews

Resonant, beautiful and often very funny... Eva is triumphantly real, a creation of great imaginative tenderness

—— Financial Times

Elizabeth Bowen was one of the handful of great English novelist of this century and must be ranked beside Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, Henry Green, and Ford Madox Ford

—— Edmund White , Washington Post

Eva is the larger-than-life, some would say monstrous, culmination of a subject that haunted Bowen's work: the neglected, or misplaced, child

—— New York Times

I still remember the electrifying effect it had upon me when it was published in 1969. At various stages of life I have become almost possessed by it... The book shimmers with life in every paragraph

—— A. N. Wilson , Daily Telegraph

A subtle, elusive novel making its mysterious way forward by side glances and half-gleams, by sudden small illuminations and half-hidden ironies, by a tenderness that is half-mocking and a mockery that is half-tender

—— Evening Standard

Exhibits extraordinary originality

—— John Bayley , Independent

Saramago can transform banal sentiments into unexpected profundities

—— David McAllister , TLS

Earle seems to have little trouble expanding his range from a three-minute song to a 300-page narrative... And though the novel comes no closer to establishing the facts of Hank Williams's death, it certainly reveals a good deal of truth behind it

—— Alfred Hickling , Guardian

A witty, heartfelt story of hope, forgiveness and redemption

—— Booklist

Previous Article：Eva Trout Next Article：Getting Hurt

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.