In search of Solace
By: Emily Mackie
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 341
ISBN-13: 9780340992524; 9780340992531
Subjects: Social life and customs; Interpersonal relations; Self-perception; Manners and customs; Identity (Psychology); Identity (Philosophical concept); Fiction
Description: Jacob Little is in trouble - existential trouble. Ten years ago, in pursuit of a philosophical theory, he ditched his girlfriend Solace and took to the road, adopting a series of personae and obsessions: he's been Keith, the archaeologist, Otto, the purple-bearded pagan, Isaac, the gardener, and many more. Now, with no sense of who he is at all, he's decided to find the one person who knows the real Jacob - Solace. Jacob's quest leads him to Solace's Scottish hometown and into the lives of four people with their own issues: his self-deluding landlady; a teenager looking for a grand romance; an old watchmaker longing for a son; and a young girl who would rather be a boy. Each sees Jacob in a different light. For each, he is a catalyst. But where does that leave Jacob? And will he ever find Solace? As deadly serious as it is funny, this is a novel about identity, love, religion, memory, self-perception, modern Britain and time. A novel to make you question yourself; a novel to obsess about.
Table of contents: title: Jacob Little is in trouble; title: existential trouble. Ten years ago, in pursuit of a theory, he'd ditched his girlfriend Solace and taken to the road, adopting a series of personae and obsessions: he's been Keith the archaeologist, Otto the purple-bearded pagan, Isaac the gardener, and many more. Now, with no sense of who he is at all, he's decided to find the one person who knows the real Jacob; title: Solace.