The Landscape Of Love

Description

'If I didn't spy, I'd be in the dark eternally. I live in a maze of unknowing - Maisie's maze - - and I hate it. I need to be informed ...' The summer of 1967, at a decaying house in the heart of Suffolk: an artist is painting a portrait of thirteen-year-old Maisie and her elder sisters, beautiful Julia and bookish Finn. Maisie embarks on a portrait of her own: she begins an account of her family and of her village friend Daniel Nunn, a young man she idolises, whom she watches over the chasm of a class divide. But is Maisie's description of a summer idyll all it seems? This is the summer when the three sisters' lives will irrevocably, and terribly, change. The winter of 1991, in London: the now-famous portrait of the three sisters features in a major retrospective. Daniel Nunn, haunted by the vanished England of his childhood, obsessed by the three sisters and newly determined to understand what happened that last summer, pursues the ghosts of his past.

Sally Beauman read English at Girton College, Cambridge. She worked as a journalist in America and Britain before beginning to write fiction. She is the author of six previous novels, including the acclaimed Rebeccas Tale.

*'Beauman is a skilful writer who manages a complicated plot with a magician's mastery, flicking between viewpoints and periods, always smooth and deceptive, surprising the reader all the way' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *'Unashamedly romantic and readable, Sally Beauman's novels have provoked increasing critical acclaim ... Beauman is a captivating and artful storyteller - capable of making us believe the unbelievable' GUARDIAN 'Deeply intriguing...the reader is right there in Suffolk, totally absorbed and longing to discover more, seduced by this most dynamic and alluring storyteller' Sue Gaisford, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'The shift between narrators is accomplished and unpredictable ... Beauman's plotting compels you to keep reading' Louise France, OBSERVER 'Enthralling and atmospheric story' MAIL ON SUNDAY / YOU Magazine 'Absorbing' Margaret Walters, SUNDAY TIMES 'Sally Beauman weaves an intricate web of relationships with an element of surprise that hooks readers to the end' WOMAN & HOME 'A tale of dissolution and disillusionment, selfishness and self- sacrifice. The plot is convoluted and yet simple enough, largely concerning why and whom we choose to love, the agonises and repercussions of one's actions while infatuated. Beauman's storytelling is confidently non-linear ... fluid and often beautiful ... a sparky mixture of wit and wicked comedy' GLASGOW HERALD 'THE LANDSCAPE OF LOVE is a warren of whodunits (and where and why) as a complicated summer of youthful ardour and loss retains its secrets for decades after. Beauman proves herself mistress yet again of the ripping good yarn' IRISH EXAMINER