Product Description

Ireland, 1950. Nina Hardy wakes in the big house where she grew up. Now aged fifty, she has returned to the fading beauty of her old home, and its unkempt gardens, its views of the wild Irish Sea, and its long-buried memories. With her childhood friend George, she is seeking peace from a turbulent world. But by the end of the day, a brutal crime will have been committed, which will alter their lives forever. As Nina tries to make sense of everything that has happened, a remarkable story unfolds -- a story of a childhood, of extraordinary friendships, and of a war. With wonderful characters, full of passion and drama, Shade is an unforgettable novel that will make great holiday reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #334541 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'He recreates the drained landscape with the vivid care of a Dutch painting, and infuses it with longing ... Powerfully visual' -- The Observer 'Shade is a beautifully written book, and is constructed perfectly; in short, it is everything that you could want from a novel ... This tale is everything that contemporary writing should be - formal experimentation in a genuine exploration of narrative and self.' -- Gregor Shepherd 20040501 'This book is an absorbing read of dream-like intensity. I was left with the sense of having travelled somewhere both strange and recognisable; and teased with the tantalising sense of shades just beyond the edges of my vision.' -- Waterstone's Books Quarterly, Lesley Glaister 20040501 'There are cinematic elements to Shade ... Jordan has a vivid sense of place, and languidly evokes the summer days of Nina's childhood in Ireland.' -- Daily Telegraph 20040501 'A deeply atmospheric ghost story' -- The Bookseller 20040501 A very impressive piece of work indeed. The narrative is well crafted, the characters are achingly credible and the writing is poetic in the finest sense of the word ! Exquisitely wrought images of turn-of-the-century Ireland litter the text' -- Sunday Telegraph 20040501 '[a] brief summary doesn't do justice to the dizzying complexity of the plot as narrative voices shift and time frames blur ... Jordan's prose is lyrical and elegiac ... It gives the novel a curiously hushed quality' -- Zembla 20040501 '[A] beautiful, multi-layered novel ! his most poetic, most moving book to date' -- Sunday Tribune 20040501 'So good it leaves one wondering why he bothers making movies. His belief in language is absolute, as is his mastery of it. Jordan doesn't waste words and the ones he uses are invariably the right ones ! The novel's beauty lies in the writing, particularly in the graceful, painterly prose of the descriptive passages. It is Thomas Hardy deferring to William Trevor. This is a very good book, possessing an elegiac resonance' -- Irish Times 20040501 'Jordan writes with a filmmaker's eye, creating a very visual, fluid portrait of childhood idylls and imaginary friendships ! his portrayal of an early Edwardian family torn apart by war and disillusionment is authentic and often funny, with brilliant pen-portraits ! He is a master of mood, insight and perception' -- Scotland on Sunday 20040501 'Compelling, intriguing, at once a human drama and a fascinating metaphysical mystery, Shade courses its way, like the river Boyne that runs through it, steadily, patiently, but thankfully, never predictably, before reaching its final, heartbreaking denouement. Triumphant.' 20040501 'A mystery where the culprit is never in doubt. Written with exceptional attention to detail, with the passion and economy of one who knows and loves language, it is a lyrically beautiful chronicle of a death foretold' -- Sunday Herald 20040501 'A novel swelling with beauty, threat and secret power ! Thoughtful and captivating' -- Toronto Globe and Mail 20040501 'With this fierce, dark and yet luminous novel, Neil Jordan once again demonstrates that he is one of Ireland's most talented artists' -- John Banville 20040501 'A richly layered tale of love and betrayal, war and friendship that spans half a century' -- Canberra Times 20040501 'A lyrical, immaculately told drama' -- Good Housekeeping 20050501 'As well as being a haunting and powerful novel, Shade ... has a cinematic quality that compels the reader to visualise the events.' -- Big Issue 20050509 'An intriguing story' -- Bradford Telegraph & Argus 20050514 'Extraordinary ... an enormously powerful book. I'd stake a bet it'll win him prizes' -- Daily Telegraph 20040501 'Romantic ... lyrical ... a novel of atmosphere ... it succeeds powerfully' -- Sunday Times 20040501 'Extraordinary ! Let us hope that Jordan's screen commitments do not keep him from the page for another 10 years' -- Independent 20040501 'A very impressive piece of work indeed' -- Sunday Telegraph 20040501 'Compelling, intriguing, at once a human drama and a fascinating metaphysical mystery' -- Patrick McCabe 20040501 'The time you pass reading Shade is only the start of an experience; this novel will continue to haunt and fascinate well beyond the final page' -- Sunday Independent 20040501 'Shares with Jordan's best films a twisting narrative which teasingly unravels its own mysteries' -- Marie Claire Book of the Month 20040501 'His cinematic sensibility yields prose of the most bewitching kind' -- Sunday Times 20050529 'Although Jordan obsessively describes the Irish landscape, it's his dialogue and charaterisation that shine' -- Independent on Sunday 20050515 'Desperately compelling ... Meditative and compulsive, Shade continues to haunt long after the book is closed.' -- Observer 20050522

Sunday Times
'Romantic ... lyrical ... a novel of atmosphere ... it succeeds powerfully'

Independent
‘Extraordinary … Let us hope that Jordan's screen commitments do not keep him from the page for another 10 years’

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!
I have always enjoyed Neil Jordon's films. They are visually rich with a storyline that compels the viewer to watch. However this is the first Neil Jordon novel I've read and I began it with slight trepidation. The first person narrator informs us of the time of her death. Slowly Neil teases out the story, layering time so that 'now' has a multitude of meanings but he never losses or confuses the reader. His imagery includes just a dash of quirkiness that lifts it into reality. I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone so I won't elaborate on the plot, suffice to say the story is set mainly in Ireland between the turn of the last century and 1950's. It interweaves the mystical with reality in a way which is more usually found in South American novels. I really enjoyed this book and have already passed it on to others to read. I suspect that Shade will appear in this year's list of Booker nominees - I hope it wins.

"Two halves, she said, trying to make a whole."
Shade is a strange, and beguiling novel. Beautifully written, with a mysterious, disparate undertone, the story combines timeless images of Hardyesque rural Irish landscapes with the horrors of the Great War. Oblique and multi-layered, Shade is part gruesome murder mystery, part mysterious fable, and part evocative love story that effortlessly brings the world of early twentieth century Ireland vividly to life. The viewer will certainly be challenged when reading this novel, as the structure is unconventional and the writing is often dense and heavily descriptive. Author, Neil Jordan - who has made a career out of making provocative movies - writes with such love, and affection for his daunting landscapes that the novel is impossible not to admire.

Shade is about four young friends whose lives are inevitably shaped by the devastating effects of World War 1 and by the beauty of their home in Drogheda, a rural town in Ireland, next to the Boyne River. The novel effectively contrasts the horrors of the conflict in the Dardanelles with the ever-restless motions of the river as it "cuts new meadows" on its way to the sea.

The novel begins with the spirit of the fifty-year-old Nina Hardy, describing how her gardener and best friend George, has brutally, and clumsily murdered her. The murder seems inexplicable, and the motivation remains unclear as George, a survivor of the Great War, was happily living and working for Nina. Nina, who grew up in the enormous, Anglo-Irish Baltray House on the Boyne River's northern bank, has just returned to the house after forty years of achieving fame as an actress.

Nina is determined, with the help of George, to rebuild the family home in which she was once happy. But George has a history of mental problems and has previously been an inmate of the psychiatric hospital of St Ita's in Portrane. There's obviously a connection between Nina and George, but the relationship remains vague and somewhat indistinct. Switching to the early 1900's, the narrative then focuses on idyllic childhood of the two as they are growing up along the mudflats of the river Boyne, with Gregory, Nina's half-brother, and Janie, George's sister.

George and Janie have both grown up in near poverty, but they find their friendship with Nina and Gregory exhilarating, and the fun and games of childhood soon lead to adult love. A fall from a large Tower leaves Nina and George somehow connected by their mutual injuries, and when George awakes from a six week coma, he seems disparate and detached, and somewhat jealous of the "ideal" relationship that Nina shares with her half-brother.

Shade is all about the shades that history plays in life. Themes of love and art are symbolically woven into the story through the lives of the main characters. Growth, birth and death, are things frozen in the moments we perceive them, like a perfect picture, understandable and interchangeable. Nina is like a ghost of the past filling the narrative with almost stream of consciousness-like images as the pieces of the puzzle are steadily put together for the reader.

In the later part of the novel, Nina is determined to draw on the events of her own troubled past as she enthusiastically treads the boards as an actor in England. Meanwhile, George and Gregory fight a terrible, bloody war in the Dardanelles. Jordan, with a fine eye for detail, nuance, and irony, brings Nina's stage and film life, as well as the carnage of the War to dramatic life. Shade is a fascinating portrait of history where the hidden threads linking childhood and adulthood are forever linked and are perpetually influential. Mike Leonard December 04

Beautiful but flawed
If you can overcome the violent and juddering start to this book, the early chapters are a wonderful evocation of childhood,and the love and dysfunctional loyalties that are built up at this time, against a poetic backdrop of beautiful Ireland. Once the four characters leave the grey stone house and the River Boyne as they move into adulthood, the narrative becomes difficult to follow as it is taken up by different voices speaking about different times in a sort of parallel, discordant ballad. When I had finished the book I had to go back to the beginning to try and put the jigsaw pieces together. This is a book that would probably benefit from a being read twice. I had hoped this would be a suitable read for my book group but I fear members would be frustrated and confused by it despite its lyrical quality and the engaging characters.