Amanda Craig creëert romans die de hedendaagse Britse samenleving ontleden met een beknopte, wrange satirische scherpte. Haar benadering van fictie wordt vergeleken met die van literaire grootheden als Anthony Trollope en Charles Dickens. Craig bouwt vaak voort op haar onderling verbonden romanseries door de focus te verleggen naar bijfiguren uit eerdere werken, en hen zo de protagonisten van nieuwe verhalen te maken. Ze toont ook een grote belangstelling voor kinderliteratuur en treedt in dit genre op als criticus voor The Times.
It isn't easy being a tween, and it isn't easy parenting them, but family
therapist Dr. Amanda Craig will teach parents how to best support and connect
with their tweens while they grow into healthy, happy adults.
Once Hannah married Jake and had his child, her dreams were crushed into bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for Eve, rich and childless, and Hannah has been surviving by becoming a cleaner in London. Jinni is equally angry and bitter, and the two women agree to murder each other's husbands
A stunning collection of seventeen stories by a vibrant mix of established and
emerging writers. The best short story collection to come out of lockdown!
Contributors include A L Kennedy, Helen Simpson, Alison Moore, Stephen
S.Thompson and Amanda Craig.
Thirty-nine, divorced, jobless: Benedick Hunter is going nowhere, heading in the exact opposite direction he expected. So when he comes across a children's book that his mother, Laura, wrote, he decides that her life and work - haunting stories replete with sinister woods, wicked witches and brave girls who battle giants - hold the key to finding out why his own life is such a mess. Setting out to discover why Laura killed herself when he was six, Benedick travels to the US. As he grows more obsessed with what happened to his mother, Benedick enters into a dark wood - one that is both hilariously real and terrifyingly psychological. Dark humorous and inventive, In a Dark Wood casts light on the nature of depression, genius and of the healing power of storytelling.
'Hugely entertaining' Telegraph'She's such a skilful storyteller who vividly
dramatises our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion'BERNARDINE EVARISTO'I
revelled in The Three Graces - such an intriguing cast, so convincingly
presented, and a narrative that continually surprises' PENELOPE LIVELY'A
brilliant piece of storytelling... it should be the book everybody's reading
this summer'ANDREW O'HAGAN'Gorgeous and generous... rich with characters and
suffused with sunlight' LISSA EVANS When Enzo shoots an illegal migrant from
his bedroom one night, it triggers a series of events that embroil old and
young, rich and poor, native and foreign. His elderly neighbours Ruth, Diana
and Marta are three friends who have retired to Tuscany. Ruth's favourite
grandson Olly is about to get married from her idyllic hillside farmhouse;
however, the bride, Tania, seems curiously unengaged by anything but vlogging
as a social media influencer. Marta, preparing to give the annual music
recital sponsored by a Russian oligarch in hiding from Putin, is increasingly
unwell, and her grandson, Xan, is full of resentment at the inequalities he
encounters. Diana is nursing her husband, Lord Evenlode, who is living with
dementia, and looking back over a long and troubled marriage. Over two weeks
in May, all these characters will face challenging choices as they grapple
with their own past and with present dangers. For although the Tuscan spring
looks as ravishing as a Renaissance painting, the realities of modern life
make it harder and harder to believe that there is more that unites us than
what keeps us apart. Brilliant, enthralling, funny and generous, this is an
exploration of the indomitable human heart.
"Quentin and Lottie Bredin, like many modern couples, can't afford to divorce. Having lost their jobs in the recession, they can't afford to go on living in London; instead, they must downsize and move their three children to a house in a remote part of Devon. Arrogant and adulterous, Quentin can't understand why Lottie is so angry; devastated and humiliated, Lottie feels herself to have been intolerably wounded. Mud, mice and quarrels are one thing - but why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beauty of the landscape is ravishing, yet it conceals a dark side involving poverty, revenge, abuse and violence which will rise up to threaten them. Sally Verity, happily married but unhappily childless knows a different side to country life, as both a Health Visitor and a sheep farmer's wife; and when Lottie's innocent teenage son Xan gets a zero-hours contract at a local pie factory, he sees yet another. By the end of their year, the lives of all will be changed for ever. Part black comedy, part psychological suspense, this is a rich, compassionate and enthralling novel in its depiction of the English countryside, and the potentially lethal interplay between money and marriage"...Publisher's description.