Alys, Always
A Novel
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Her, a suspenseful, assured literary debut that explores the dark side of desire and ambition through one woman's unlikely entry into an elite world.
Driving home to London one winter evening, Frances happens upon a car that has flipped onto its side. She comforts the dying driver, Alys Kyte, and hears her final words. The wife of a celebrated novelist, Alys moved in rarefied circles, and when Frances agrees to meet the bereaved family, she glimpses a world entirely foreign to her: cultured, wealthy, and privileged. While slowly forging a friendship with Alys’s carelessly charismatic daughter, Frances finds her own life takes a dramatic turn, propelling her from an anonymous existence as an assistant editor for the books section of a newspaper to the heights of literary society.
With this unforgettable protagonist, author Harriet Lane draws readers into a tightly paced tale that careens towards an audacious ending. Transfixing, insightful, and unsettling, Alys, Always drops readers into the mind of an enigmatic young woman whose perspective on a glamorous world shines a light on those on the outside who would risk everything to be accepted.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lane's wry debut delves into the political machinations of London's literary scene. While driving home one night, Frances Thorpe comes upon an overturned car. She stays with the injured driver, the middle-aged Alys Kyte, until help arrives. Alys dies on the scene, and Frances realizes she's heard the woman's last words. When Alys's family pursue Frances for closure, she learns that Alys was the wife of bestselling author Laurence Kyte. As an assistant at the books desk of a failing newspaper, Frances is familiar with his work, and a little starstruck. Talking to Frances seems to comfort the Kytes, particularly Polly, Alys's college-bound daughter. As Frances spends more time with the family, the literati take note. What began as a dutiful visit to a grief-stricken family blooms into opportunity, and Frances quickly finds herself juggling ambition with honest affection for the Kytes, which becomes greatly more complicated when her attraction to Laurence turns out to not be entirely one-sided. Lane outlines Frances's slow evolution from doormat to mercenary with dry humor and a sincere, if less than reliable, narrator.
