Mothering Sunday is a short novel by Graham Swift, winner of the 1996 Booker Prize. I read the author for the first time, but as soon as the book ended, I have added two more books from him to my reading list. Swift is a writer who knows how to create exquisite characters and capture the soul of the reader.
In Mothering Sunday, the narrative moves between different years. We read about a secret love and Jane; a woman whı rises from her ashes over and over again. Jane and Paul maintain a secret relationship for years, despite all their differences. They make love for the last time on an unusually hot Sunday in March because Paul is about to marry another woman. While watching Paul, Jane can feel that everything will change after that day.
Graham Swift, a great author
Graham Swift is one of those writers who can tell the worlds with the characters he created. Instead of revealing everything as it is, he gives little clues and knows that his reader will understand. I love the writers who make the reader work. Swift is one of them, and I can say that he is one of the best. If you want to spend a sunny day in the British countryside and meet remarkable characters, you’ll love this book.
About the book: Mothering Sunday
It is March 30th 1924. It is Mothering Sunday.
How will Jane Fairchild, orphan and housemaid, occupy her time when she has no mother to visit? How, shaped by the events of this never to be forgotten day, will her future unfold?
Beginning with an intimate assignation and opening to embrace decades, Mothering Sunday has at its heart both the story of a life and the life that stories can magically contain. Constantly surprising, joyously sensual and deeply moving, it is Graham Swift at his thrilling best.
Mothering Sunday is a powerful, philosophical and exquisitely observed novel about the lives we lead, and the parallel lives – the parallel stories – we can never know … It may just be Swift’s best novel yet’ Observer
About the author: Graham Swift
Graham Colin Swift FRSL is an English writer. Born in London, England, he was educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens’ College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. Some of Swift’s books have been filmed, including Waterland, Shuttlecock and Last Orders.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
