Alan hollinghurst the stranger's child

Of hollinghursts writing, the 19 section of the strangers child is the most forsterian. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1989 somerset maugham award, the 1994 james tait black memorial prize and the 2004 booker prize. The strangers child 2011 06 july 2011 on books, poetry, hollinghurst, gay, tennyson, waugh, class. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst, paperback. Sep 04, 2012 alan hollinghurst is the author of the novels the stranger s child, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, and the line of beauty, which won the man booker prize and was a finalist for the national book critics circle award. Alan hollinghursts the strangers child could hardly be better, and its a mystery to me and to many others why it didnt make this years recent shortlist for the man.

Hollinghursts debut also made great use of roops, a young boy. Filled with intimacies and confusions, the weekend will link the families for ever, having the most lasting impact on georges sixteen. Mar 12, 2018 his last one, the strangers child 2011, is very good as well like this one, it is made up of five interlinked sections. Reading guide for the strangers child by alan hollinghurst. Alan hollinghursts elegant novel about the life and legacy of a gay war poet shows how truth is compromised by the erasures of remembrance. At first the stories seem disparate, but eventually the connections become clear. The strangers child alan hollinghurst, 2011 knopf doubleday 448 pp. The line of beauty, winner of the 2004 man booker prize and a finalist for the national book critics circle award. The strangers child positively teems with droll, wellobserved accounts of both childhood and adolescence. Beautifully written, ambitious in its scope and structure, confident in its execution, the strangers child is a masterclass in the art of the novel.

Alan hollinghurst is the author of the novels the strangers child, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, and the line of beauty, which won the man booker prize and was a finalist for the national book critics circle award. May 24, 2012 the stranger s child is alan hollinghurst s sunday times novel of the year. Alan hollinghurst is the author of the novels the stranger s child, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, and the line of beauty, which won the man booker prize and was a finalist for the national book critics circle award. The strangers child june 2011 is the fifth novel by alan hollinghurst. Dec 01, 2016 an inspiring conversation with the awardwinning english novelist alan hollinghurst noted for his novel the line of beauty about being a sort of puppet.

Epic in sweep, it intimately portrays a luminous but changing world and the ways memory and myth can be built and broken. Jun 30, 2011 the strangers child, hollinghursts first since the 2004 bookerwinner the line of beauty, came out on monday in the u. When given enough space, cecil valance, the poet whose legacy is developed in hollinghursts fifth novel, loses his heroic sheen. Victorianism, with its sentiment, clutter and decorum, has special importance in the strangers child, which is committed to a kind of salvage.

The strangers child, alan hollinghursts fifth novel, opens on a scene in harrow and wealdstone, a suburb north of london chosen by the author to. From the man booker prizewinning author of the line of beauty. Dec 12, 2011 the strangers child, alan hollinghursts fifth novel, opens on a scene in harrow and wealdstone, a suburb north of london chosen by the author to represent the middle ground, that is. It is seven years since alan hollinghurst won the 2004 booker prize for the line of beauty, his jamesian account of an eighties arriviste moving in high tory circles. Hollinghurst has a feel for the fragility of memory, and the brutality inherent in the modernist drive to make it new. An inspiring conversation with the awardwinning english novelist alan hollinghurst noted for his novel the line of beauty about being a sort of puppet. He has received the somerset maugham award, the james tait black memorial prize for fiction and. He was on the staff of the times literary supplement from 1982 to 1995. In 19 he visits a cambridge friend, george sawle, at the latter s home in stanmore, middlesex.

In 19, a young bisexual poet named cecil valance spends a weekend at the suburban villa of george sawle, a fellow cambridge student with whom he is secretly having an affair, and writes a verse. Alan hollinghurst talks about the strangers child on bookbits radio. The strangers child traces the vanishing of samesex love through. As should be clear by now, the strangers child is a profoundly nostalgic book, in the strict greek sense of homesickness. The strangers child will no doubt be one of the best novels published this year. The author admits his 19 section is pastiche, but adds that creating a book from other books may be the normal state of affairs for a novelist. In his two most recent novels, first the strangers child and now the sparsholt affair, the superb english writer alan hollinghurst has made it his project to describe the. The sparsholt affair by alan hollinghurst, paperback. Divided into five sections, alan hollinghursts narrative each time focuses on a different generation.

His acclaimed first novel, the swimmingpool library 1988, gives a vivid account of london gay life in the early 1980s through the story of a young aristocrat, william beckwith. The strangers child has been compared to the work of evelyn waugh, e. Masterly in its narrative sweep and imaginative depth, this novel about cecil s increasingly threadbare literary reputation enormously enhances hollinghurst s own. Alan hollinghurst is the author of the novels the swimmingpool library. Minneapolis star tribune beautifully written, ambitious in its scope and structure, confident in its execution, the strangers child is a masterclass in the art of the. Jun 27, 2011 the stranger s child, then, is a departure. The strangers child is hollinghursts masterly exploration of english culture, taste and attitudes. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst, paperback barnes. The book tells the story of a minor poet, cecil valance, who is killed in the first world war. He read english at magdalen college, oxford graduating in 1975.

Hollinghurst was born in stroud, gloucestershire, the only child of james. Forster award of the american academy of arts and letters and the james. From the man booker prizewinning author of the line of bea. In the opening section of the strangers child, alan hollinghurst jumps into the milieu of some of the greatest novels in english, the end of the dressfordinner era that came just before world war i. The strangers child, alan hollinghursts fifth novel, opens on a scene in harrow and wealdstone, a suburb north of london chosen by the author to represent the middle ground, that is the space between the upper and lower orders or rather, this being england in 19, between the orders of lower upper middle and upper upper middle. The strangers child is alan hollinghursts sunday times novel of the year. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst lambda literary. He has also received the somerset maugham award, the e. In hollinghursts eagerly awaited new novel we see that if history is written by the winners, biography belongs to the survivors. The strangers child alan hollinghurst hardback, picador, isbn 9780330483247.

See interview with alan hollinghurst on saturday 18 june. The book tells the story of a minor poet, cecil valance, who is killed in the first world. It is a powerful and utterly absorbing modern classic. His last one, the strangers child 2011, is very good as well like this one, it is made up of five interlinked sections. The strangers child, alan hollinghursts account of a fictional british poet martyred by world war i, initially approaches its subject with as much delicacy as if he were real. Jun 24, 2011 the strangers child is hollinghursts fifth novel, following his 2004 booker prizewinning the line of beauty. Oct 19, 2017 longlisted for the man booker prize, the strangers child is hollinghursts masterly exploration of english culture, taste and attitudes. Oct 11, 2011 alan hollinghurst is the author of the novels the stranger s child, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, and the line of beauty, which won the man booker prize and was a finalist for the national book critics circle award.

The strangers child, alan hollinghursts fifth novel, opens on a scene in harrow and wealdstone, a suburb north of london chosen by the. Oct 06, 2011 alan hollinghursts the strangers child could hardly be better, and its a mystery to me and to many others why it didnt make this years recent shortlist for the man. The strangers child traces the vanishing of samesex love through suppression and then, paradoxically, acceptance. The strangers child begins on the eve of the first world war with the poet cecil valances visit to two acres, the house of his cambridge friend george sawle. The strangers child, by alan hollinghurst the independent. Hollinghursts opening is typical of his fascination with the dynamics of domestic settings, and the turbulent. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst the literateur. Exposing our secret longings to the shocks and surprises of time, the strangers child is an enthralling novel from one of the finest writers in the english language. The title is taken from in memoriam, tennysons elegy to his great. Alan hollinghursts new novel is undoubtedly one of the best this year.

As should be clear by now, the strangers child is a profoundly nostalgic book. The strangers child has a wider scope than any of hollinghursts previous books. That, at least, would be one way to describe these works. In alan hollinghursts latest, a hazy sex scandal looms. The strangers child moves from the beginning of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty first. Life of alan hollinghurst, the strangers child interview. Jun 17, 2011 the stranger s child by alan hollinghurst. Alan hollinghurst is among britains most highlyrated literary novelists, whose bestknown book the line of beauty 2004, winner of that years man booker prize, is a tourdeforce envisioning of the thatcher years as an era of doomed romance. In the late summer of 19, george sawle brings his cambridge friend cecil valance, a charismatic young poet, to visit his family home. His fine and elegant writing seems to be more than an homage to novels such as brideshead revisited or howards end. In an inversion of the brideshead theme, the outsider, the strangers child, is an aristocrat visiting a middleclass home and seducing the family in it the sawles of two acres, a pleasant victorian villa in stanmore hill, in the outer suburbs of london.

Alan hollinghurst is the author of five novels, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, the line of beauty and the stranger s child. Alan hollinghurst is the author of the novels the strangers child, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, and the line of beauty, which. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst great pick. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The sparsholt affair is alan hollinghursts sixth novel, and like his previous two the man booker prizewinning the line of beauty and, subsequently, the strangers child the story travels through a series of eras, capturing in each the nature of gay life in england. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst penguin random. Alan james hollinghurst frsl born 26 may 1954 is an english novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. Alan hollinghurst is the author of five novels, the swimmingpool library, the folding star, the spell, the line of beauty and the strangers child. With the stranger s child, an already remarkable talent unfurls into something spectacular the sunday times, paperback of the week a big, long. Hollinghurst is a superior novelist of manners, and the brilliance of the strangers child is in how it reveals the ways bad blood and secrets muck with history. Alan hollinghurst was born in stroud in gloucestershire, england in 1954 and was educated at magdalen college, oxford. For me, and for many fans of literary fiction, particularly the gay ones, a new alan hollinghurst novel is an event.

Maurice famously opened begun 19 finished 1914 dedicated to a happier year. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst goodreads. The strangers child by alan hollinghurst pan macmillan. The strangers child audiobook by alan hollinghurst. In the late summer of 19, george sawle brings his cambridge schoolmatea. The strangers child is hollinghursts fifth novel, following his 2004 booker prizewinning the line of beauty. In alan hollinghursts latest, a hazy sex scandal looms over. Mar, 2018 in his two most recent novels, first the strangers child and now the sparsholt affair, the superb english writer alan hollinghurst has made it his project to describe the. Forster, and, as with hollinghursts previous novels, henry james, as well as that of contemporaries like ian mcewan for atonement, which, on the surface, has many similarities and kazuo ishiguro for the remains of the day. The strangers child, hollinghursts first since the 2004 bookerwinner the line of beauty, came out on monday in the u. Yet a pressure it is and, given alan hollinghursts published output to date four books across two decades, the surprise about the strangers. Alan hollinghurst is an english novelist, and winner of the 2004 booker prize for the line of beauty. Reading guide for the strangers child by alan hollinghurst discussion guide for book clubs. He has received the somerset maugham award, the james tait black memorial prize for fiction and the 2004 man booker prize.