Land of the Living

Land of the Living

by Georgina Harding (Author)

Synopsis

A profound masterpiece on war, loss and survival set in Nagaland, India during the Second World War, by the Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Painter of Silence 'A lyrical novel about war and memory' Guardian, 'Ones to Watch 2018' Charlie's experiences at the Battle of Kohima and the months he spent lost in the remote jungles of Nagaland during the Second World War are now history. Home and settled on a farm in Norfolk and newly married to Claire, he is one of the lucky survivors. Starting a family and working the land seem the best things a man can be doing. But a chasm exists between them. Memories flood Charlie's mind; at night, on rain-slicked roads and misty mornings in the fields, the past can feel more real than the present. Though hidden even to himself, the darkest secrets of Charlie's adventures in the strange and shadowy ridges of the Nagaland mountains, his dream-like encounters with the mysterious and ancient tribesmen, leak and bleed through his consciousness. What should be said and what left unsaid? Is it possible to forge a new life in the wake of unfathomable horror? A beautifully conceived, deftly controlled and delicately wrought meditation on the isolating impact of war, the troubling legacies of colonialism and the inescapable reach of the past, Georgina Harding's haunting, lyrical novel questions the very nature of survival, and what it is that the living owe the dead.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 01 Nov 2018

ISBN 10: 1408896249
ISBN 13: 9781408896242
Book Overview: A profound masterpiece on war, loss and survival set in Nagaland, India during the Second World War, by the Orange Prize-shortlisted author of Painter of Silence

Media Reviews
A lyrical novel about war and memory * Guardian, Ones to Watch 2018 *
Arresting and brutal ... the finely tuned work of a writer exceptionally at ease with her craft and a testament to the power and poetry of clean and disciplined prose -- Sadie Jones * Guardian on The Gun Room *
Harding skilfully weaves together history, memory and imagination ... Haunting and beautifully written * Daily Mail *
Harding's writing has a careful, lilting fluency which nourishes a slow-burning momentum * Daily Telegraph *
In delicate, hypnotic prose, Harding describes the devastating effects of war and the trauma of bearing witness * Sunday Express *
Graceful and considered ... Harding has the measure of photography * Sunday Telegraph *
It is the calm quietness in her writing that is so appealing - she lays an image down so gently that it floats in the mind long after -- Margaret Forster
Her writing is so gentle and beautiful and takes you so confidently on a journey. I let myself be carried away -- Esther Freud
Author Bio
Georgina Harding is the author of four previous novels: The Gun Room, The Solitude of Thomas Cave, The Spy Game, which was shortlisted for the Encore Award, and Painter of Silence, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012. Georgina Harding lives in London and on a farm in the Stour Valley, Essex.