My Phantoms
My Phantoms
Hardcover
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‘A short, sharp shock of a novel [...] funny and devastating' Guardian
'What a phenomenal ear she has, and how remorselessly funny she is My Phantoms is unmissably good' Kevin Barry, author of Night Boat to Tangier
'I read My Phantoms with great pleasure. It's a wonderful combination of achingly sad and subversively funny, simultaneously sharp and tender, and always finely observed. The dialogue is pitch perfect. The relationships are agonising. It's a subtle book, with big themes lightly drawn and precisely rendered, about how to live and how to love' Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane
'Devastated by this novel. Gwendoline Riley can draw character like nobody else. The weight each pristine, witty sentence carries! This is life, its aches, its silences, its love, what is carried and left unsaid. Her prose is so sharp you could cut yourself on it' Elizabeth MacNeal, author of The Doll Factory
'My Phantoms is the funniest and bleakest book I have read in a long time. It's also the most moving unexpectedly, perhaps, as it sets about capturing the awful comedy of a particularly English kind of sourness: one that takes perverse delight in disappointment and calamity. Gwendoline Riley's talent for making characters live, and her skill for identifying the essential moment, word or gesture, is immense' Chris Power, author of Mothers
Guardian Best Books of 2021 preview
Observer, Best Books of 2021 preview
Daily Mail, Best Books of 2021 preview
Independent, Best Books of 2021 preview "Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as 'Hen') has always haunted Bridget. Now, Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year, and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship - the performances and small deceptions - she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. But when Helen makes it clear that she wants more, it seems an old struggle will have to be replayed. From the prize-winning author of First Love, My Phantoms is a bold, heart-stopping portrayal of a failed familial bond, which brings humour, subtlety and new life to the difficult terrain of mothers and daughters."
'What a phenomenal ear she has, and how remorselessly funny she is My Phantoms is unmissably good' Kevin Barry, author of Night Boat to Tangier
'I read My Phantoms with great pleasure. It's a wonderful combination of achingly sad and subversively funny, simultaneously sharp and tender, and always finely observed. The dialogue is pitch perfect. The relationships are agonising. It's a subtle book, with big themes lightly drawn and precisely rendered, about how to live and how to love' Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane
'Devastated by this novel. Gwendoline Riley can draw character like nobody else. The weight each pristine, witty sentence carries! This is life, its aches, its silences, its love, what is carried and left unsaid. Her prose is so sharp you could cut yourself on it' Elizabeth MacNeal, author of The Doll Factory
'My Phantoms is the funniest and bleakest book I have read in a long time. It's also the most moving unexpectedly, perhaps, as it sets about capturing the awful comedy of a particularly English kind of sourness: one that takes perverse delight in disappointment and calamity. Gwendoline Riley's talent for making characters live, and her skill for identifying the essential moment, word or gesture, is immense' Chris Power, author of Mothers
Guardian Best Books of 2021 preview
Observer, Best Books of 2021 preview
Daily Mail, Best Books of 2021 preview
Independent, Best Books of 2021 preview "Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as 'Hen') has always haunted Bridget. Now, Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year, and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship - the performances and small deceptions - she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. But when Helen makes it clear that she wants more, it seems an old struggle will have to be replayed. From the prize-winning author of First Love, My Phantoms is a bold, heart-stopping portrayal of a failed familial bond, which brings humour, subtlety and new life to the difficult terrain of mothers and daughters."
All Editions
Hardcover, 2nd Edition
ISBN13: 9781783783267
Granta, 2021
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