Product Description

Jennet Mallow is born in Yorkshire in the 1920s but her interest in art and creativity alienates her from her family, her father who is a priest, her conventional sister and her emotionally stunted mother. Jennet moves to London in search of a more exciting life and finds it in her new environment and in the handsome and enigmatic figure of the painter David Heaton. When Jennet falls pregnant, her parents more or less force the two to marry. In the post-war austerity of the 1940s, the young couple struggles to make ends meet and Jennet finds that her home life is gradually eroding everything she has fought to achieve. Aware that David is becoming increasingly reliant on drink and tired of the dank and drab bed-sit in which they live, Jennet suggests they move to Spain. There, the bright blue skies, warm air and sunlit beaches give the couple and their children a new lease of life. Jennet begins to paint again and an agent takes an interest in her work. But as Jennet's own career begins to take off, her relationship with David sours and the two enter a destructive spiral with tragic consequences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10428 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'A new star has arrived on the literary scene.' (AN Wilson EVENING STANDARD )

'What distinguishes this tale...is Kay's fine balance of romance and realism and her beautiful evocation of how paintings reflect their creator's experiences.' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

'one dazzingly brilliantly executed scene after another...A marvel.' (INDEPENDENT )

'An impressive debut novel that paints a vivid portrait of a woman torn between the conflicts of creativity and familial duty.' (DAILY EXPRESS )

'sensual...Francesca Kay knows - and shows - how good art takes on a life all of its own.' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

'an absorbing and ambitious debut' (GUARDIAN )

'The supple, verbless sentences of Fracesca Kay's accomplished first novel create a sensuous prose full of colour, taste and smell.' (Anthony Cummins DAILY TELEGRAPH )

"This is an outstanding literary debut, with masterful variation in style and characterisation of deep insight" (BOOKSELLER PAPERBACK PREVIEW )

About the Author
Francesca Kay grew up in South-east Asia and India and has subsequently lived in Jamaica, the United States, Germany and Ireland. She now lives in Oxford with her family and works in British-Irish relations.

Customer Reviews

Took my breath away
An Equal Stillness is quite simply one of the best debut novels I've read. When I saw it was a fictional biography I thought it might be dry, but, in the vividness of its language and piquancy of its emotional dilemmas this book really is anything but. You are with Jennet every step of the way, as she struggles through her destructive relationship with David, her subsequent affairs, her difficult experiences of motherhood and daughterhood, all while producing the most amazing - and amazingly described - art. And for someone who's never written a novel before to write so well took my breath away - it's such a moving and heartfelt book.

An Equal Stillness
I love the title of this book, counterpoised against the more well-known phrase - "an equal music" - from one of Donne's sermons, suggesting that the novel's journey will be a journey from uncertainty in negotiating the world outside oneself - parents, lovers, children, friends, success, failure - towards inner equilibrium. The main character is an artist - reserved, self-effacing, discriminating and, of course, amazingly talented! Her story is told by another voice, one which is able to share the artist's vision and describe as through her eyes, what she loves to look at and paint, until word, colour object become miraculously interwoven, suggesting the very texture of her paintings. The book is radiant with the love of the language of colour - a vast palette of pigments and hues, a continuous search for the exact words to describe the ever-changing landscape of city, country, sky and sea. The book is absorbing and the kind of novel you keep reading til you reach the last page, knowing then that you will surely go back and read it again.

Beautifully realised
This fictional biography of an artist is startlingly good. It describes the painter's life and artistic development in a very realistic way, and offers very illuminating reflections on the whole creative process. It also works very well as a novel - you want to know how Jennet's story develops and ends. But the most astonishing thing about it is that you can visualise the paintings that are described in such detail - these wholly imaginary works of art have a real presence and weight within the book. You believe in their beauty and integrity, and you truly believe that Jennet is a serious and significant artist. This is a powerful and moving book about a life lived for art.