May 1, 2015
Growing up in the years before the Great War, Jessica Melville longs for the bright lights of London and sister Phyllis for a chance to go to university while knowing that only their golden-boy brother will be allowed his dreams. Meanwhile, they're rather merciless toward shy Oskar Grunewald, son of a family friend and a genius in math and physics, who has an enormous impact on the sisters postwar. Clark boasts two Orange Prize long-listers, The Great Stink and Savage Lands.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2015
Ellinghurst Castle, one of England's fine old residences, was built by Jeremiah Melville as a folly complete with turrets, a moat, and a drawbridge. Over a 300-year period, it was lovingly maintained and embellished by successive generations of Melvilles until World War I upset the natural order of things. With the loss of son and heir Theo, his mother, Eleanor, abandons her home and family to seek comfort from a succession of crank spiritualists. It then falls to her daughters to carry on the Melville legacy. But younger daughter Jessica resents the lost opportunities to find a husband that a formal coming-out season would have provided, while her sister, Phyllis, after serving as a battlefield nurse, wants to be free from convention and pursue a career in archaeology. Of the few remaining males in the family circle, it may be Oscar Greenwood, Eleanor's godson, who can save the castle for which he holds almost as much affection as he does for Phyllis. VERDICT As in Downton Abbey, Ellinghurst Castle suffers a reversal of fortunes after the war, and like Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth and so many other young women of her generation, Jessica and Phyllis see their postwar choices narrowed and their bright futures dimmed. Clark's wonderful new novel deserves as much love and attention as those two beloved works. [See Prepub Alert, 4/6/15.]--Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.