Personality

by Andrew O ' Hagan (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $3.48

  Maria Tambini is a 13-year-old girl with an amazing singing voice, growing up above her Italian-immigrant mother's chip shop on the Scottish island of Bute, living at the centre of her family's dream of fame. When Maria wins a national TV talent show she is taken to London and becomes an instant star of what used to be called the London Palladium, yet all the while 'the girl with the giant voice' is losing herself in fame and begins a private war against her own body. Maria becomes a living exhibit in the modern drama of celebrity: is it possible that she can be saved by love? Or is she to be consumed by an obsessive culture, by family lies and her number one fan? Featuring a wonderful cast of characters who encompass a whole society, its history and its spirit, Personality is a profoundly affecting and beautiful novel by one of the finest writers of prose today.

• Used

  paperback
  

  $4.63

  Maria Tambini is a thirteen-year-old girl with a great singing voice. Growing up on a small Scottish island, she is ready for the big time and keen to escape her ordinary life. When she wins a national TV talent show, she becomes an instant star, yet all the time 'the girl with the giant voice' is losing herself in fame and in a private battle with her own body. Can Maria be saved by love or is she destined to be consumed by celebrity, by family secrets, and by her number one fan? 'An enormously impressive, frequently curious and consistently ambitious novel.' Sunday Times 'Personality plucks a wealth of literary art ...What he manages brilliantly is allowing us only restricted access to Maria's mind, so that the reader is put in something like the same relation to her as the sharkish agents and managers who suck her dry.' Guardian 'There is boldness and beauty in this finely wrought merging of mythical epic, historical resonance and contemporary detail, and it is emblematic of O'Hagan's wider ambition ...Few young novelists would have the nerve to undertake such a task and fewer still could accomplish it with such command, such grace, and such compassion.' New York Review of Books

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $3.48

• New

  paperback
  

  $11.70

  Maria Tambini is a thirteen-year-old girl with a great singing voice. Growing up on a small Scottish island, she is ready for the big time and keen to escape her ordinary life. When she wins a national TV talent show, she becomes an instant star, yet all the time 'the girl with the giant voice' is losing herself in fame and in a private battle with her own body. Can Maria be saved by love or is she destined to be consumed by celebrity, by family secrets, and by her number one fan? 'An enormously impressive, frequently curious and consistently ambitious novel.' Sunday Times 'Personality plucks a wealth of literary art ...What he manages brilliantly is allowing us only restricted access to Maria's mind, so that the reader is put in something like the same relation to her as the sharkish agents and managers who suck her dry.' Guardian 'There is boldness and beauty in this finely wrought merging of mythical epic, historical resonance and contemporary detail, and it is emblematic of O'Hagan's wider ambition ...Few young novelists would have the nerve to undertake such a task and fewer still could accomplish it with such command, such grace, and such compassion.' New York Review of Books