Arctic Summer - by Damon Galgut (Paperback)

About the Book

In 1912, the SS Birmingham approaches India. On board is Morgan Forster, novelist and man of letters, who's embarking on a journey of discovery. As he stands on deck, the promise of a strange new future begins to take shape before his eyes. The seeds of a story start to gather at the corner of his mind: a sense of impending menace, lust in close confines, under a hot, empty sky. It will be another 12 years, and a second time spent in India, before "A Passage to India," E.M. Forster's great work of literature, is published.

Book Synopsis

This "beautifully written and utterly compelling" novel by the acclaimed South African author traces E. M. Forester's journey of self-discovery (The Times, London).

The year is 1912, and the SS Birmingham is approaching India. On board is Edward Morgan Forster, a reserved man taunted by writer's block, attempting to come to terms with his art and his homosexuality. During his travels, the novelist confronts his fraught childhood and falls in unrequited love with his closest friend. He also finds himself surprisingly freed to explore his "minorite" desires as secretary to a most unusual Maharajah.
Slowly, the strands of a story begin to gather in Forster's mind: a sense of impending menace, lust in close confines, under a hot, empty sky. But it will be another twelve years and a second stay in India before the publication of his finest work, A Passage to India. Shifting across the landscapes of India, Egypt, and England, Forster's life is informed by his relationships--from the Egyptian tram conductor Mohammed el-Adl, to the Greek poet and literary titan C. P. Cavafy. Damon Galgut's reimagining of Forster's life is a clear and sympathetic psychological probing of one of Britain's finest novelists.

"Galgut inhabits [Forster] with such sympathetic completeness, and in prose of such modest excellence that he starts to breathe on the page."--Financial Times

Review Quotes

Praise for Arctic Summer

"Beautifully written and utterly compelling."
--The Times

"The author has managed to craft a version of E.M. Forster that penetrates his inner life better than any conventional biography ever has."
--The Economist

"The genius of this novel, which would well be one of the finest literary works published this year, lies in Galgut's exploration of the agony of unrequited love."
--The Irish Times

"A remarkable, lyrical tribute."
--The Guardian

"Galgut is extremely good on Forster's anxieties, his loneliness, his unworldliness, and his 'crumpled, second-hand appearance, which made him seem like a tradesman of some kind.' The portrait is beautifully nuanced, a mixture of bold, colorful strokes and delicat little flicks of the brush."
--The Sunday Times

"The pain of unequal love and the desolating gulf between desire and fulfillment, so beautifully conveyed here by Glagut in the case of a long-dead writer, is as recognizable today as it was over a century ago."
--The Telegraph

Praise for Arctic Summer
-Beautifully written and utterly compelling.-
--The Times
-The author has managed to craft a version of E.M. Forster that penetrates his inner life better than any conventional biography ever has.-
--The Economist
-The genius of this novel, which would well be one of the finest literary works published this year, lies in Galgut's exploration of the agony of unrequited love.-
--The Irish Times
-A remarkable, lyrical tribute.-
--The Guardian
-Galgut is extremely good on Forster's anxieties, his loneliness, his unworldliness, and his 'crumpled, second-hand appearance, which made him seem like a tradesman of some kind.' The portrait is beautifully nuanced, a mixture of bold, colorful strokes and delicat little flicks of the brush.-
--The Sunday Times
-The pain of unequal love and the desolating gulf between desire and fulfillment, so beautifully conveyed here by Glagut in the case of a long-dead writer, is as recognizable today as it was over a century ago.-
--The Telegraph

Praise for Arctic Summer
"Beautifully written and utterly compelling."
--The Times
"The author has managed to craft a version of E.M. Forster that penetrates his inner life better than any conventional biography ever has."
--The Economist
"The genius of this novel, which would well be one of the finest literary works published this year, lies in Galgut's exploration of the agony of unrequited love."
--The Irish Times
"A remarkable, lyrical tribute."
--The Guardian
"Galgut is extremely good on Forster's anxieties, his loneliness, his unworldliness, and his 'crumpled, second-hand appearance, which made him seem like a tradesman of some kind.' The portrait is beautifully nuanced, a mixture of bold, colorful strokes and delicat little flicks of the brush."
--The Sunday Times
"The pain of unequal love and the desolating gulf between desire and fulfillment, so beautifully conveyed here by Glagut in the case of a long-dead writer, is as recognizable today as it was over a century ago."
--The Telegraph

"This is a wise and brilliant book." -"Times"
"A beautiful book, strikingly conceived and hauntingly written, a writer's novel par excellence without a clumsy word in it." --"The Guardian"
"Galgut's powerful writing is honest and insightful, polished as it is to a marble-like perfection." --"The Globe and Mail"

"This is a wise and brilliant book." -"Times"

"A beautiful book, strikingly conceived and hauntingly written, a writer's novel par excellence without a clumsy word in it." --"The Guardian"

"Galgut's powerful writing is honest and insightful, polished as it is to a marble-like perfection." --"The Globe and Mail"

About the Author

Damon Galgut is the author of The Good Doctor, a 2003 novel that won the Commonwealth Prize (Africa Region) and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In a Strange Room (Europa, 2010) was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2013, Galgut was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.