The Great Godden
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3.9 • 10 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED for the Costa Children's Book Award 2020.
This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer – the summer when everything changes. In a holiday house by the sea, in a big, messy family, one teenager watches as brothers and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding.
Enter the Goddens – irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there's a serpent in this paradise – and the consequences will be devastating.
From bestselling, award-winning author Meg Rosoff comes a lyrical and quintessential coming-of-age tale – a summer book that's as heady, timeless and irresistible as Bonjour Tristesse and I Capture the Castle but as sharp and fresh as Normal People.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
There are many things about Meg Rosoff’s writing here that we enjoyed, but it’s perhaps her gorgeous, evocative capturing of the English seaside that left us most impressed. The Great Godden paints a beautiful picture of an idyllic house by the sea one lazy and summer, and how that summer gets totally upended with the arrival of two brothers. There’s golden boy Kit: handsome and impossibly charming. And there’s also Hugo: more reclusive, spiky and quietly mysterious. Thus follows a compelling tale of desire, deceit and manipulation as the brothers wreak havoc on our nameless lead character. It’ll summon nostalgia for warm weather and wonderful locations, but not perhaps for the delicious teenage angst.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Through an unnamed, ungendered teen's sharp eye and knowing narration, Printz Medalist Rosoff tells a dryly humorous story of summer and love gone awry. Each summer, a cued-white London family gathers at their beloved seasonal residence: a gabled, periwinkle blue beach house that's long been in the family. The narrator, whose room features an old widow's walk complete with telescope, watches everything, including three younger siblings—bat fanatic Alex, horse enthusiast Tamsin, and newly beautiful, self-obsessed 16-year-old Mattie—as well as Hope, a younger cousin of their father, and her partner, Malcolm, who live down the beach. This year, there are two surprises: Hope and Malcolm are engaged, and the Godden brothers, gorgeous Kit and sulky Hugo, sons of a once-famous actress, move in with Hope and Malcolm for the season. Kit, a manipulator par excellence, immediately makes a play for Mattie's affections, but also, says the narrator, "slipped between my ribs like a flick-knife." Between Mal and Hope's wedding planning, the Godden brothers' tensions, and Kit's erratic attentions, the summer darkens, leading this effective character study and depiction of childhood's end to a surprising climax. Ages 14–up.
