Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148187 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 292 pages

Review
Praise for 'Miss Garnet's Angel': 'Rich, complex and haunting ! she makes the ancient story as riveting as Miss Garnet's own adventures.' Sunday Times 'Delightfully affecting.' Independent Books of the Year 'Writes like a haunted angel.' The Times Praise for 'Mr Golightly's Holiday': 'Vickers reproduces conversations about Brazilian bikini waxes, bird watching or metaphysics with a mimic's expertise; paints Dartmoor's scenery with artistry.' Sunday Telegraph 'Full of charm.' Independent on Sunday 'A treat, fun, reflective and, in its very English way, quietly jubilant.' Books of the Year, Sunday Telegraph

Philip Pullman
'A writer whose subtle intelligence and unobtrusive command of narrative I always enjoy'

Waterstones Books Quarterly
'...a compelling portrait...her most enjoyable book since her debut, shows us that books can get inside us, too.'

Customer Reviews

Impressively sage
This is a very fine novel about human frailty. As I read it I felt understood, and it also made me question my own life and the decisions I have made. This author has a knack of opening doors in the mind which have been kept shut, or locked, a rare quality. I don't cry easily but I wept several times reading this. It was recommended to me by a high court judge, who is also not given to tears. It is however a discreet book, not at all sentimental and the writing is beautifully cool and precise.

Elegaic
I have read all Salley Vickers's novels but this is easily the best. It has a command and authority which takes you at once into the story so that you want to read on. The cast of characters is broad, a black schizophrenic cleaner, a bewildered Pakistani Muslim, a man who believes he has a wolf trapped in his skull (my favourite) but the characters who really engross us are Dr David Macbride and his patient Elizabeth. The latter has attempted suicide, which is why she is under this psychiatrist's care but what is most compelling about her story is the way it shadows her doctor's, so that in the end the two stories become intertwined and the two characters are linked by their tragedies. I loved the desciptions of Rome and Caravaggio. There is a very subtle ending. A very rich book and it is also beatifully written.

Superb writing
I have read all Salley Vickers' novels, and liked them all, especially Miss Garnet. But this is easily the best. I began it at 9 o clock last night and read until I had finished it at 4 am. Seven hours, the length of the conversation David, the narrator, has with Elizabeth, his patient. It is a profoundly moving novel, full of insight and shrewd observation. And wonderfully written. An absolute winner. It will outsell even Miss Garnet.