Author:Gloria Cook
All she wants is a roof over her head...
After her plans to elope with her married lover fall through, Rachel Kivell is broken-hearted, and saddened that she must remain in her small Cornish mining town, with all of its dark secrets.
But her brooding is put to an end when the loving but childlike Alice Bowden turns up on her doorstep. Poor orphaned Alice has nowhere to go, but Rachel cannot see herself taking on the responsibilities of a child. Can she put her worries aside, or will Alice never find a place to call home?
Note: Previously published as All in a Day
[Jenny Holmes] creates wonderfully human and flawed characters . . . A thrilling, surprising and bittersweet tale . . . Fans of Call the Midwife will particularly enjoy it
—— On: Yorkshire magazinePraise for Jenny Holmes
—— :Vibrant and heart-warming, Jenny Holmes makes Chapel Street come alive.
—— Sunday Express on The Shop Girls of Chapel StreetGritty and uplifting, it's a tale of triumph over adversity
—— Choice on The Mill Girls of Albion LaneThe Waiting Hours vividly portrays England during the Second World War, revealing the role ordinary women played behind the scenes. If you’ve enjoyed Dean’s wartime sagas so far, this should be next on your list.
—— CultureFlyTouching, poignant and warm storytelling
—— Hair Past a Freckle BlogSaga fans will love The Waiting Hours and I would definitely recommend buying it as soon as possible
—— Shaz’s Book BlogThe characters feel real and authentic
—— Anne Bonny Book BlogI just could not put it down
—— Ginger Book GeekEllie Dean is such a fabulous storyteller. She never fails to deliver and I greatly Look forward to the next instalment.
—— Mojo Mums[White Teeth] established a model for how to make sense-and art-out of the complexity, diversity and pluck that have defined the beginning of this century
—— TimeA dramatic, intimate chronicle of a family implosion set in unsettling times
—— Publishers' WeeklyIf there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be
—— Karen Joy FowlerThis is a novel about the way the members of a family keep secrets from one another, tell lies and make mistakes.. .
—— Literary ReviewTóibín's retelling is governed by compassion and responsibility, and focuses on the horrors that led Clytemnestra to her terrible vengeance. Her sympathetic first-person narrative makes even murder, for a moment, seem reasonable (...) Tóibín's prose is precise and unadorned, the novel's moments of violence told with brutal simplicity. But its greatest achievement is as a page-turner. In a tale that has ended the same way for thousands of years, Tóibín makes us hope for a different outcome
—— The Economist[An] intense, thought-provoking and original novel . . . Toibin's book transforms this ancient story into a lyrical, melancholy meditation on closeted desire, which implicitly comments on the aftermath of the Irish Troubles'
—— Emily Wilson , TLSGraphic, vicious, beautiful retelling of ancient myths.... Ultimately the book is a stark, timeless and brilliantly rendered tale of power in a world, as ever, riven by conflict.
—— 'I' NewspaperIn a novel describing one of the Western world's oldest legends, in which the gods are conspicuous by their absence, Tóibín achieves a paradoxical richness of characterisation and a humanisation of the mythological, marking House Of Names as the superbly realised work of an author at the top of his game.
—— Daily ExpressA spellbinding adaptation of the Clytemnestra myth, House of Names considers the Mycenaen queen in all her guises: grieving mother, seductress, ruthless leader - and victim of the ultimate betrayal.
—— VogueA haunting story, largely because Tóibín tells it in spare, resonant prose...
—— Lucy Hughes-Hallett , New StatesmanA Greek House of Cards... Just like Heaney at the end of his Mycenae lookout, Toibin's novel augurs an era of renewal that comes directly from the cessation of hostilities.
—— Fiona Macintosh , Irish TimesThe book's mastery of pacing and tone affirm the writer as one of our finest at work today.
—— John Boland , Irish IndependentA daring, and triumphant return, to the Oresteia... bleakly beautiful twilight of the Gods.
—— Boyd Tonkin , The Arts DeskIt couldn't have been done better
—— ScotsmanA visceral reworking of Oresteia
—— ObserverThe escalation of violence and desire for revenge has deliberate echoes of the Irish Troubles
—— Observer Books of the Year