Title: To Heaven By Water
Description: Justin Cartwrights novels include the Booker shortlisted In Every Face I Meet, the Whitbread Novel Award winner Leading the Cheers and the acclaimed White Lightning, shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award, The Promise of Happiness, winner of the 2005 Hawthorden Prize and, most recently, the acclaimed The Song Before It Is Sung. Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and lives in London.Now that his wife is dead, retired television news anchor, David Cross, believes that he is more himself than he has been for forty years. When Nancy was alive, he had secrets that he kept from her. Now he has a secret that he must keep from his children, Ed and Lucy, namely that he is in some ways happier now than he was when their mother was alive.To Heaven by Water is a touching and hilarious portrait of the Cross family, trying in their own fashion to come to terms with their loss. David knows that his children are perplexed by his increasingly compulsive behaviour while marriage to the lovely Rosalie, a former ballet dancer, is suffering strain, and Lucy is being stalked by her ex boyfriend. Both children worry that their father will soon find a new partner. Over all three of them hangs the memory of Nancy.The book opens as David is taking time out with his brother in the Kalahari Desert, living his tumultuous and uplifting memories of Rome where he worked on a film with Richard Burton. Back home in London, Ed is trying to balance his affair with a young woman in his office with his real love for his wife, who is unable to conceive the child she longs for. And Lucy, who has just been voted No. 6 in the Evening News section devoted to beautiful and brainy women, is a young woman in pursuit of her real self. To Heaven by Water is a wonderful story of friendship, forgiveness and of love that comes from unexpected directions; it is an exploration of what we might hope for from this life and. in particular. the possibility of transcendence. Into the beautifully observed and subtly composed texture of this tale of middle class London life, Justin Cartwright weaves sudden shocks that tear it apart, moments of sex and revenge that appear from a cloudless sky to take the readers breath away.The new novel by the author of the Richard Judy bestseller The Promise of Happiness Justin Cartwrights novels include the Booker shortlisted In Every Face I Meet the Whitbread Novel Award winner Leading the Cheers and the acclaimed White Lightning shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award, The Promise of Happiness, winner of the 2005 Hawthorden Prize and, most recently, the acclaimed The Song Before It Is Sung. Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and lives in London.Theres not a wasted word or a false emotion in this elegant, meditative work from a mature master Praise for the work of Justin Cartwright:Cartwright makes the reader pause, gasp and wonder. This is what great fiction should do, and it certainly does here Times It is simply a great, many layered novel that does exactly what art should do: bring coherence to life Boston Globe.A quiet masterpiece Los Angeles Times To Heaven by Water marks a return to the style of The Promise of Happiness, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and sold over 140,000 copies Comparable to Ian McEwan Saturday, E.M Forsters Howards End, early Martin Amis and William Boyd. Publication will be marked with a groundswell of publicity including BBC Radio Book at Bedtime, radio and press interview, reviews, features and festival appearances.
Subjects: Fiction, Literature