A Long Way from Verona - by Jane Gardam (Paperback)

About the Book

A young girl aspiring to be a writer recounts her experiences growing up in England during the Second World War.

Book Synopsis

"Gardam is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying. Who, in these times, doesn't need this kind of palliative?" Los Angeles Review of Books

"Far more than just another coming-of-age story." Bustle

In A Long Way from Verona, Jessica Vye introduces herself with an enigmatic pronouncement: "I ought to tell you at the beginning that I am not quite normal, having had a violent experience at the age of nine." Jessica has always known that her destiny would be shaped by her refusal to conform, her compulsion to tell the absolute truth, and her dedication to observing the strange wartime world that surrounds her.

Told with grace and inimitable wit, A Long Way from Verona is a wise and vivid portrait of adolescent discovery and impending adulthood.

"Jane Gardam is a wonderful writer. Her understanding of character and use of language are both remarkable."

The Times

Review Quotes

Praise for A Long Way from Verona

"A Long Way from Verona is a brilliant, witty, and agonizingly true-to-life novel."
--The Times Literary Supplement

"A fiercly funny and personal book."
--The Economist

"Jane Gardam is a wonderful writer. Her understanding of character and use of language are both remarkable."
--The Times

Praise for Jane Gardam

"Jane Gardam has a spectacular gift for detail of the local and period kind, and for details which make characters so subtly unpredicatble that they ring true."
--The Times Literary Supplement

"Gardam is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying. Who, in these times, doesn't need this kind of palliative"
--LA Review of Books

Praise for A Long Way from Verona
-A Long Way from Verona is a brilliant, witty, and agonizingly true-to-life novel.-
--The Times Literary Supplement
-A fiercly funny and personal book.-
--The Economist
-Jane Gardam is a wonderful writer. Her understanding of character and use of language are both remarkable.-
--The Times
Praise for Jane Gardam
-Jane Gardam has a spectacular gift for detail of the local and period kind, and for details which make characters so subtly unpredicatble that they ring true.-
--The Times Literary Supplement
-Gardam is the best kind of literary escape: serious, mesmerizing, and deeply satisfying. Who, in these times, doesn't need this kind of palliative-
--LA Review of Books

About the Author

Jane Gardam is the only author to have twice been awarded Britain's prestigious Costa (formerly Whitbread) Award for Best Novel. She is widely known for her revered trilogy: Old Filth, The Man in the Wooden Hat, and Last Friends. She lives in the south of England by the sea.