Day

Description

Winner of the 2007 Costa Book Award Alfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and - most extraordinary of all - he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that's all gone now - the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too. Now in 1949, employed as an extra in a war film that echoes his real experience, Day begins to recall what he would rather forget...

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards - including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

Kennedy is described in the literary press as not only one of our finest, but also one of our most humane, writers * Church Times * Day confirms, if confirmation were needed, that Kennedy is a singular, superlative author. I hope that the judges of this year's Man Booker prize pay particular attention to it -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday * Kennedy does bleak the way the Russians do epic; unremittingly, awesomely and undershot with redeeming humour -- Gillian Bowditch * Sunday Times * Once again, Kennedy brilliantly interweaves over-wrought internal dialogue with external outrageous acts. The unfolding tenderness of nature and of amity blend superbly with the casualness of daily horror -- Catherine Taylor * Independent on Sunday * Day is more than a novel, it is an investigations into the difficulties of being alive -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *