About this item
Highlights
- Love can be a lifeline... or a breaking point.
- Author(s): H S Cross
- 336 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Literary
Description
Book Synopsis
Love can be a lifeline... or a breaking point.
In post-WWI Britain, tumult is the order of the day. After a violent incident in Galway, Marion flees to Oxford, the City of Dreaming Spires. Against a background of cobbled streets and off-beat book presses, she meets Jamie, who is returning, shell-shocked, from the frontlines. He alone understands her scars, and the sides of herself she doesn't show in public. There is something wild and anarchic about their love for one another. A lot, perhaps everything, is at stake.
Without falling out of love, the pair suddenly falls out of contact. Marion disappears to Switzerland, while Jamie's work pulls him towards Scotland. Marion continues to be afflicted by voices, "Talkers," a lingering reminder of her dark past, even as new loss threatens to consume her. In fits and starts, their worlds slowly come back together, leaving readers guessing until the final page.
In this one-of-a-kind romantic epic, H.S. Cross takes all of this--love, damage, time, conflict, uncertainty--and transforms it into singular prose with the emotional depth of Wuthering Heights. Split between Marion and Jamie's perspectives, Amanda reminds readers of the infinite varieties of human experience and provides a poignant answer to the age-old question "what's in a name?"
Review Quotes
"For Anglophiles, seekers, and those who enjoy the insular world of C. P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers novels and the haunting power of Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending."--Jen Baker, Booklist on Wilberforce
"Set at St. Stephen's Academy in 1926 England, this ambitious and accomplished debut is part historical, part bildungsroman, part psychological study, and part English boarding-school novel...VERDICT: This convincingly handled work is recommended for all fans of coming-of-age novels."--Library Journal on Wilberforce
"Cross writes with a beautiful precision... The author crafts passages of agonizing psychological self-torment with a master's ear for the perfect phrase."--The New York Journal of Books [on Wilberforce]
"Cross's rich gifts as a writer are evident on every page. She has thoroughly researched and inhabited this world, down to its slang, rituals, and historical atmosphere. Saint Stephen's feels completely authentic, and every word choice is apt."-- Image Journal on Wilberforce
"Cross's fine eye for detail and empathy for the human condition . . . [are] rewarding in their emotional insights."-- Kristen McDermott, Historical Novel Society on Wilberforce