Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Fair Exchange


Got the image here.
I have no words for the book except that I am disappointed that it is already the end of the story. I just want to keep on reading. It had me wanting to just follow what happens to the characters. Ü So, also from here:
Drawing on the secrets, lives & affairs of two of the most famous &
passionate figures of the late 19th century - Mary Wollstonecraft & William
Wordsworth - this is Roberts' most romantic novel to date, written in beautiful,
beguiling prose. In the early 1800s, Louise, a French peasant, fearing she is
about to die, calls for her priest. She has a secret to confess. Though the
priest is impatient, she wants to tell her tale from the beginning. It opens in
London in the 1780s, when Jemima Boote arrives at Mary Wollstonecraft's school.
Later she follows her beloved teacher to Paris, wanting to be part of the
erupting revolution & then - 6 months pregnant - retreats to the village of
Louise's youth. Her arrival coincides with that of another young mother-to-be,
Annette, who has been sent by her parents to the country to hide her disgraceful
pregnancy & to get over her infatuation with William, a young English poet.
In an abandoned convent they take up their waiting: waiting for their babies,
waiting for their men. While borrowing hints & facts from the lives of
Wordsworth & Wollstonecraft, the intriguing mystery of the lives that unfold
as a result of these pregnancies, is Michele Roberts'
own fascinating creation.
All in all: Intriguingly mysterious. Impressive.

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