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Without a City Wall
On sale
26th April 2012
Price: £8.99
Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
Disillusioned with his successful life in London, Richard Godwin moves to a remote Cumberland village in search of a more fulfilling existence. His arrival coincides with a birth of an illegitimate child to a local woman, binding her to a future she had hoped to escape. As these two outsiders struggle to come to terms with themselves – and each other – their passion, desperation and delight draw all those around them into conflict.
‘As near to being a work of art as makes no difference. I became more and more deeply and enjoyably immersed’ The Times
Disillusioned with his successful life in London, Richard Godwin moves to a remote Cumberland village in search of a more fulfilling existence. His arrival coincides with a birth of an illegitimate child to a local woman, binding her to a future she had hoped to escape. As these two outsiders struggle to come to terms with themselves – and each other – their passion, desperation and delight draw all those around them into conflict.
‘As near to being a work of art as makes no difference. I became more and more deeply and enjoyably immersed’ The Times
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Reviews
As near to being a work of art as makes no difference. I became more and more deeply and enjoyably immersed in this simple and profoundly moving modern morality tale
A very good novel, simply about a man and a woman: traditional in form - it has a beautiful arch-like structure - and Lawrencian in tone
Mr Bragg sets the Cumberland scene as vividly as in his previous novels, the landscape dominating, mining towns and farmlands so 'transitory' when viewed from the hillsides. What bliss, but even in such a remote spot human traps are laid...he succeeds in this portrait of a modern couple trying to find reasonable partnership. There are some excellent descriptive passages.
With this third novel Melvyn Bragg has become a writer of stature . . . Bragg has always been good at describing the bantering of youthful lovers. He excels himself here