A mysterious clergyman is dead. His daughter Athene is desolate. Through a muddle and the vagueness of her family, Athene finds herself in the summer after her father's funeral marooned in a cottage with a painter, then in a hotel and finally in a school, empty apart from a schoolmaster.
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Summary
A mysterious clergyman is dead. His daughter Athene is desolate. Through a muddle and the vagueness of her family, Athene finds herself in the summer after her father's funeral marooned in a cottage with a painter, then in a hotel and finally in a school, empty apart from a schoolmaster.
Description
A rather mysterious old clergyman is dead, and his most adoring child, sixteen-year-old Athene is desolate. A statuesque beauty, greatly admired, she is also lonely, untouchable and living a secret life of fairly dangerous fantasy. Athene's mother, at once highly organised and monumentally vague, dispatches her children to spend the holidays with assorted friends and relatives. For Athene, victim of plans gone awry, that golden summer after the funeral becomes deliciously puzzling fodder for her fantasy. Stuck in a seaside hotel with an inarticulate and beautiful boy, marooned in a seaside cottage with a painter, and finally alone in an empty school with a young master, she finds that men are not all as saintly as her father- and that she is far from saintly herselfa?|
Critic Reviews
“The pattern of THE SUMMER AFTER THE FUNERAL, like that of an Iris Murdoch satires, is as intricate and delicate as a mazurka... To enjoy the full impact of this marvellously entertaining book one cannot afford to skip a single word.”
'Funny and exact...you can't help cheering, enjoying, wanting more.' SPECTATOR '' TLS 'Extraordinary... Mrs Gardam is a writer of original spirit, her observations acute and funny/sad.' GUARDIAN 'Jane Gardam to me is everything that's right about contemporary fiction...there's nothing more difficult than trying to catch a mood and I think she does that to perfection.' Margaret Foster
About the Author
Jane Gardam has been awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize for a lifetime's contribution to the enjoyment of literature; has twice won a Whitbread Award and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
A rather mysterious old clergyman is dead, and his most adoring child, sixteen-year-old Athene is desolate. A statuesque beauty, greatly admired, she is also lonely, untouchable and living a secret life of fairly dangerous fantasy.Athene's mother, at once highly organised and monumentally vague, dispatches her children to spend the holidays with assorted friends and relatives. For Athene, victim of plans gone awry, that golden summer after the funeral becomes deliciously puzzling fodder for her fantasy. Stuck in a seaside hotel with an inarticulate and beautiful boy, marooned in a seaside cottage with a painter, and finally alone in an empty school with a young master, she finds that men are not all as saintly as her father- and that she is far from saintly herself...
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