Heligoland

Heligoland

by ShenaMackay (Author)

Synopsis

The Nautilus, a strange building shaped like the chambered shell of the same name, was built in South London in the early 1930s. Designed on Modernist and Utopian principles, it was a haven for a floating community of cosmopolitan refugees, intellectuals and artists. Now, at the end of the century, only two of the original inhabitants still occupy their chambers - Celeste Zylberstein, joint architect with her late husband of the Nautilus, and Francis Campion, an elderly poet. Gus Crabb, a dealer in bric-a-brac, is the only other resident until, to the Nautilus, like a hermit crab seeking a home, comes Rowena Snow. Of Indian/Scottish parentage, orphaned, without family or friends, Rowena is in search of her own Utopia - or the Heligoland of her childhood imagination. Shorlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction and the Whitbread Novel Award.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 01 Jan 2004

ISBN 10: 0099273594
ISBN 13: 9780099273592
Book Overview: 'A slender, intelligent fiction written in ravishing prose... If I read a better novel this year, I shall think myself lucky' - Sunday Telegraph Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Whitbread Novel Award.
Prizes: Shortlisted for Orange Prize for Fiction 2003 and Whitbread Prize (Novel) 2003.

Media Reviews
With what tenderness, rage, wit and accuracy Mackay writes about loneliness and belonging-What a brilliant novel this is Independent on Sunday Elegant, elusive... The writing is superb-[Mackay's] gentle mastery of language is quite beyond showy displays of technique Guardian An intriguing, witty and provocative story Daily Mail Tender, funny and wonderfully realised Sunday Express Shena Mackay is a national treasure... She has achieved that rarest of things for a writer: creating a world that is utterly her own Daily Telegraph
Author Bio
Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh. She is the author of five collections of stories - Babies in Rhinestones, Dreams of Dead Women's Handbags, The Laughing Academy, The World's Smallest Unicorn and The Atmospheric Railway: New and Selected Stories. Her novels include Dunedin, The Orchard on Fire (which was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize) and The Artist's Widow.