An indelible story of one woman's life, revealed in a series of
beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the
1960s to today, from one of Britain's leading literary lights--Tessa
Hadley.
**"Clever Girl is...what could be called a 'sensibility' novel--a
story that doesn't overreach, about a character who feels real, told in
prose that isn't ornate yet is startlingly exact. The effect is a fine
and well-chosen pileup of experiences that gather meaning and
power."--Meg Wolitzer, New York Times Book Review
**
Clever Girl is a powerful exploration of family relationships and
class in modern life, witnessed through the experiences of an
Englishwoman named Stella. Unfolding in a series of snapshots, Tessa
Hadley's involving and moving novel follows Stella from childhood,
growing up with her single mother in a Bristol bedsit, into the murky
waters of middle age. It is a story vivid in its immediacy and rich in
drama--violent deaths, failed affairs, broken dreams, missed chances.
Yet it is Hadley's observations of everyday life, her keen skill at
capturing the ways men and women think and feel and relate to one
another that elevate this tale into "a beautiful and precisely drawn
portrait of an everywoman, both extraordinary and ordinary"
(Minneapolis Star Tribune).
