How It All Began by Penelope Lively

Description

Bibliographic Details

• Author: Penelope Lively
• Title: How It All Began
• Publisher: ‎ Viking Books; First American Edition (January 5, 2012)
• Language: ‎ English
• Format: Hardcover – 229 pages
• ISBN-10: ‎ 0670023442
• ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0670023448
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher
• Item Weight: ‎ 1.15 pounds
• Dimensions: ‎ 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Book Condition: Used – Very Good (may show some minor discoloration on page edges)
• Dust Jacket Condition: Excellent
• Edition: First American Edition

Synopsis:

A vibrant new novel from Penelope Lively-a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect.

When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends.

Through a richly conceived and colorful cast of characters, Penelope Lively explores the powerful role of chance in people's lives and deftly illustrates how our paths can be altered irrevocably by someone we will never even meet. Brought to life in her hallmark graceful prose and full of keen insights into human nature, How It All Began is an engaging, contemporary tale that is sure to strike a chord with her legion of loyal fans as well as new readers. A writer of rare wisdom, elegance, and humor, Lively is a consummate storyteller whose gifts are on full display in this masterful work.

About the Author:

Dame Penelope Margaret Lively DBE FRSL (born 17 March 1933) is a British author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger.

Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began.

She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012.

Penelope Lively lives in London.

She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.