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After the Bombing

After the Bombing

by Clare Morrall (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2014

    $3.50
Synopsis

On the night of May 3rd, 1942, fifteen-year-old Alma Braithwaite and her fellow boarders at Goldwyn's school huddle in an air-raid shelter as bombs rain down on Exeter in one of the Baedeker raids. By the time the girls emerge, half the school is in ruins and the city centre has been destroyed.

Twenty-one years on, Alma lives alone in the family house and teaches music at her old school. She's moderately content, until the death of the long-serving headmistress brings a new broom in the form of the steely, modernizing Miss Yates. A new student starts too - the daughter of a man Alma hasn't seen since 1942, when he played a pivotal role in her life. Suddenly, Alma is taken back to the summer that followed the raids, a summer of numbing loss yet also of youthful exuberance, friendship and dancing.

In this enthralling novel, Clare Morrall captures the impact of the Second World War on those at home, particularly the ones too young to take part, and poignantly conveys the long shadow it cast for a generation of women.

$3.50

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 384
 Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 27 Mar 2014
ISBN 10: 1444736426
ISBN 13: 9781444736427
Book Overview: By the author of Astonishing Splashes of Colour, an ambitious and moving exploration of the lasting impact of the Second World War.

Media Reviews
Oscillating between World War II and the early Sixties, Morrall sets about evoking the war's enduring impact on those who were left behind on the home front, too young to take part yet irrevocably shaped by it nonetheless . . . an engaging story throughout. -- Hephzibah Anderson * Daily Mail *
A potent evocation of the war on the Home Front and its emotional impact on the young people who survived it . . . as much a tale about identity and survival as it is about the impact of national trauma on individuals . . . Her dedication to authenticity has paid off. The novel resonates with the age -- Danuta Kean * Independent on Sunday *
Clare Morrall is a writer with a gift for unflamboyant but effective storytelling . . . her narrative has a cumulative power -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times *

PRAISE FOR THE ROUNDABOUT MAN:

Morrall has always excelled at portraying individuals who are out of kilter with the world and critical of it . . . The fundamental mystery of the artistic imagination is one of the threads that run through Morrall's novel, along with its destructive effects on those in proximity to the artist and the extent to which every life is fictional . . . Best of all is the portrait of the hapless Quinn. Despite his glamorous back story, he has no outstanding qualities yet is quietly fascinating.

-- Suzi Feay * Literary Review *
Morrall's fictional eye is set firmly on the quirks of the individual. It is an approach that has served her brilliantly . . . And Quinn fits the mould wonderfully. Morrall writes with poise and delicacy, and her subjects are delightfully offbeat. -- Lucy Atkins * The Sunday Times *
I was enchanted from the very first page. The author's descriptions of war-torn Exeter are so vivid, I felt I was there. * Good Housekeeping *
Author Bio
Clare Morrall's first novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was published in 2003 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that year. She has since published the novels Natural Flights of the Human Mind, The Language of Others, The Man Who Disappeared, which was a TV Book Club Summer Read in 2010, The Roundabout Man and After the Bombing. Born in Exeter, Clare Morrall now lives in Birmingham. She works as a music teacher, and has two daughters.