Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson (English) Paperback Book

Description: Emotionally Weird by Kate Atkinson Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and more. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description The hilarious third novel by the number one bestselling author of Life After Life - the ultimate 1970s campus novel.From the NUMBER 1 bestselling author of LIFE AFTER LIFE, SHRINES OF GAIETY and NORMAL RULES DONT APPLYOn a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories.Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers).But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Why is everyone writing novels? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?Sends jolts of pleasure off the page...Kate Atkinsons funniest foray yet...it is a work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty SCOTSMANA brilliant and profoundly original writer DAILY TELEGRAPH Notes This title, from the acclaimed author of Behind the Scenes at the Museum, explores the nonsensical nature of language and meaning. It reached number 4) in the Sunday Times bestseller list on original publication. Kate Atkinson is to tour when this is published in March. "Funny, bold and memorable" The Times. Back Cover On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog? A TRULY COMIC NOVEL - ACHINGLY FUNNY IN PARTS - CHALLENGING AND EXECUTED WITH WIT AND MISCHIEF Meera Syal, The Express SENDS JOLTS OF PLEASURE OFF THE PAGE...ATKINSONS FUNNIEST FORAY YET...IT IS A WORK OF DICKENSIAN OR EVEN SHAKESPEAREAN PLENTY Catherine Lockerbie, The Scotsman Author Biography Kate Atkinson is one of the worlds foremost novelists. She won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prizewinning novels set around World War II are Life After Life, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award), and Transcription. She has also written five bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, the latest of which is Big Sky.Kate Atkinson was appointed MBE for services to literature in 2011. Review The lustre, energy and panache of her writing are as striking as ever...Funny, bold and memorable * The Times *Beautifully written...brimming with quirky characters and original storytelling. Kate Atkinson has struck gold with this unique offering * Time Out *Sends jolts of pleasure off the page...Atkinsons funniest foray yet...it is a work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty * The Scotsman *A truly comic novel - achingly funny in parts - challenging and executed with wit and mischief...hilarious and magical * Daily Express *Her novels are remarkable both in and of themselves, and as evidence of an important emerging body of work from a brilliant and profoundly original writer * Daily Telegraph *With just two novels, Atkinson has added new colour to the British literary landscape * Guardian * Promotional Third novel by the bestselling author of When Will There Be Good News? - the ultimate (hilarious) 1970s campus novel. Kirkus UK Review As in Behind the Scenes at the Museum and Human Croquet, Atkinson once again uses all her sorcery with language to bedazzle the reader. In essence this is a simple story. Nora and Effie (who might be mother and daughter) are living on an otherwise deserted Scottish island. They are the last of the line of Stuart-Murrays. Student Effie is recuperating from a nasty bout of flu and to relieve the tedium of rainy days and long, dark nights, they tell each other stories which might, or might not, be true. Noras, brief and uninformative to begin with, are about the familys past (Grand Guinol, with a pinch of Greek Tragedy). Effies graphic, satirical stories are set in the 1970s and revolve around student life and her shiftless friends - interspersed with chunks of her Writing Assignment, which rapidly turns into a crime novel. As always, the story is overflowing with invention, marvellous descriptions, and laugh-aloud jokes. This is, in fact, a novel with a life of its own - a book one could easily be persuaded wrote itself - though on reflection it is carefully controlled, and has its own logic. And at the end all is revealed and all loose ends firmly knotted. There are many loose ends. Who is Effies father? Who, indeed, her real mother? Who were Noras parents? Who is following Effie when shes in Dundee and for what reason? Why are so many old people dying in the local retirement home? Dont worry, all will become transparent before the last page is - reluctantly - turned. (Kirkus UK) Kirkus US Review The author of Whitbread Awardwinner Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1996) indulges in even more of the postmodern game-playing that disrupted Human Croquet (1997). The year is 1972. Twenty-one-year-old Euphemia Stuart-Murray and her mother, Nora, are camped out at the crumbling family home on a remote Scottish island. We must get on, we must tell our tales, says Nora, and Effie begins with details of her adventures in graduate school just a month earlier at Dundee University. Shes living with Bob, a fellow student more interested in watching Star Trek, smoking dope, and listening to Led Zeppelin than attending classes. Effies not doing much better: she owes papers to all her professors and can barely muster up the energy to attend her tutorial, led by pompous Archie McCue, who spouts academic gibberish to his indifferent tutees. Interspersed with Effies narration are snatches from the murder mystery shes writing for another class; from Archies endless experimental novel, The Expanding Prism of J; from the heavy-breathing romance his wife is penning; and from other students work, including a Tolkien-like fantasy and a Beckettesque nihilistic drama. All of these highlight Atkinsons wicked wit without much advancing the plotnot that it matters, since the storyline is a slapdash affair involving various lost dogs, a ratty private eye, and lots of humor at the expense of self-important 70s radicalism and perennial grad-student aimlessness. Noras story, parceled out reluctantly at Effies urging, concerns her daughters mysterious origins; the final revelations about both womens parentage will not surprise anyone whos been paying attention to the heavy foreshadowing. Atkinsons jokes are funny, her characters lively (if cartoonish), but her scattershot approach to storytelling wears thin long before the end. Behind the Scenes at the Museum proved Atkinson can be playful and probing when she chooses. Fans of this talented writer can only hope that next time out shell concentrate more on emotional substance, less on narrative tricks. (Kirkus Reviews) Review Text The lustre, energy and panache of her writing are as striking as ever...Funny, bold and memorable Review Quote "Beautifully written…brimming with quirky characters and original storytelling.... Kate Atkinson has struck gold with this unique offering." Time Out "Sends jolts of pleasure off the page… Atkinsons funniest foray yet… a work of Dickensian or even Shakespearean plenty." The Scotsman "Funny, bold and memorable." The Times Promotional "Headline" The hilarious third novel by the number one bestselling author of Life After Life - the ultimate 1970s campus novel. Excerpt from Book 1 Inspector Jack Gannet drove into Saltsea-on-Sea along the coast road. Todays sun (not that he believed it to be a new one every day) was already climbing merrily in the sky. It was a beautiful morning. Shame it was about to be spoilt by the Lucky Lady and her cargo - one very unlucky lady. One very dead lady. Jack Gannet sighed, this job didnt get any easier. Jack Gannet had been in the force longer than he cared to remember. He was a straightforward, old-fashioned kind of detective. He had no strange tics or eccentricities - he didnt do crosswords, he wasnt Belgian, he certainly wasnt a woman. He was a man suited to his profession. What he wasnt, was happy. He didnt want to be dealing with a dead body on a glorious morning like this. Especially not on an empty stomach. Madame Astarti didnt know about the dead body yet. She was having some trouble opening her eyes. They were glued shut by sleep and mascara and one too many gins in The Crab and Bucket last night with Sandra and Brian. Madame Astarti sighed and groped blindly around on her bedside table for her lighter and a packet of Players No.6 and inhaled deeply on a cigarette. She loved the smell of nicotine in the morning. Seagulls were clog-dancing on the roof above her head, heralding a brand new day in Saltsea-on-Sea. Through a gap in the curtains she could see that the sun was the colour of egg-yolks. Sunrise, she thought to herself, a little daily miracle. It would be funny, wouldnt it, if it didnt happen one morning? Well, probably not very funny at all really because everything on earth would die. The really big sleep. My mother is a virgin. (trust me.) my mother, nora - a fiery Caledonian beacon - says she is untouched by the hand of man and is as pure as Joan of Arc or the snow on the Grampians. If you were asked to pick out the maiden in a police line-up of women (an unlikely scenario, I know) you would never, ever, choose Nora. Am I then a child of miracle and magic? Were there signs and portents in the sky on the night I was born? Is Nora the Mother of God? Surely not. On my birth certificate it states that I was born in Oban, which seems an unlikely place for the second coming. My beginning was always swaddled in such mist and mystery by Nora that I grew up thinking I must be a clandestine princess of the blood royal (true and blue), awaiting the day when I could come safely into my inheritance. Now it turns out that things are more complicated than that. I am twenty-one years old and I am (as far as I know, for we can be sure of nothing it seems), Euphemia Stuart-Murray. Effie, for Noras sister, who drowned in a river on the day that I was born. Nora herself was just seventeen when I entered the material world. A child looking after a child, she says. These Stuart-Murrays are strangers to me, of course. As a child I had no kindly grandfather or playful uncles. Nora has never visited a brother nor spoken wistfully of a mother. Even their name is new to me, for all of my life Nora and I have gone by the more prosaic Andrews. And if you cannot trust your name to be true then what can you trust? For all she has acknowledged her family - or vice versa - my mother may as well have washed ashore on a scallop shell, or sprung fully formed from some wrathful gods head, her veins running with ichor. The closest Nora ever came to talking about any family until now was to claim that we were descended from the same line as Mary Stuart herself and the dead Scottish queens flaws had followed us down the generations, particularly, Nora said, her bad judgement where men were concerned. But then, I doubt that this is a trait exclusive to Mary Queen of Scots, or even the Stuart-Murrays. I have come home - if you can call it that, for I have never lived here. My life is all conundrums. I am as far west as I can be - between here and America there is only ocean. I am on an island in that ocean - a speck of peat and heather pricked with thistles, not visible from the moon. My mothers island. Nora says it is not her island, that the idea of land ownership is absurd, not to mention politically incorrect. But, whether she likes it or not, she is empress of all she surveys. Although that is mostly water. We are not alone. The place is overrun with hardy Scottish wildlife, the thick-coated mammals and vicious birds that have reclaimed the island now that the people have all left it for the comfort of the mainland. Nora, ever a widdershins kind of woman, has made the journey in reverse and left the comfort of the mainland to settle on this abandoned isle. When we say the mainland we do not always mean the mainland, we often mean the next biggest island to this one. Thus is our world shrunk. Nora, a perpetual d Details ISBN055299734X Author Kate Atkinson Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd ISBN-10 055299734X ISBN-13 9780552997348 Format Paperback Imprint Black Swan Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 823.914 Media Book Year 2001 Series Black Swan Language English Edition New Jacket Pages 496 UK Release Date 2001-03-01 Publication Date 2001-03-01 AU Release Date 2001-03-01 NZ Release Date 2001-03-01 Birth 1930 Affiliation Nottingham Trent University Position Author Qualifications Ph.D. Audience General Alternative 9781409082682 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:1118825;

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