Next Of Kin
a moving novel about loss and growth from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trollope
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- €4.49
Publisher Description
Multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope expertly depicts how grief can tip the family balance head over heels in this beautifully written novel about change and hope through adversity. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Noble, Erica James and Amanda Prowse.
'Extraordinarily powerful' -- Mail on Sunday
'A devastatingly acute picture of a harsh rural world' -- The Sunday Times
'Certainly one of her best' -- Daily Telegraph
'A richly satisfying novel ... compulsively readable' -- Sunday Express
'Kept me interested - twists and turns - great character development - well written' -- ***** Reader review
'I couldn't put it down and finished the book in just a couple of days' -- ***** Reader review
'Excellent' -- ***** Reader review
'A wonderful book, a wonderful story, wonderful characters - a must have' -- ***** Reader review
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A FAMILY IN CRISIS. A CATALYST THAT THREATENS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING...
The land running down to the River Dean has been farmed by the Meredith family for generations. Robin Meredith bought the farm from his father, just before he married his wife Caro and now he and his brother Joe work on the land. But now Caro has died, as much as a mystery to the family as she was when she arrived twenty years ago, and the whole family feels her loss acutely, none more so than her adopted daughter Judy.
Into this unhappy family comes Zoe, Judy's London friend, an outsider with an independent spirit and a disturbing directness. Everyone underestimates Zoe's power as a catalyst for change as the realities behind the seeming idyll of a rural community become ever clearer...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Among bestselling British author Trollope's enviable skills are her ability to create characters with believable flaws, and to ponder plausible life situations in which the best possible outcome is merely pragmatic, rather than romantic, and tinged with rue as well as guarded hope. In her ninth novel (after Marrying the Mistress), the theme is the inevitability of change and the possibility of growth. The Meredith family, for generations farmers in the rural English midlands, are now beset by financial problems in a changing economy. The book opens with the funeral of Caro Meredith, a transplanted American who never adjusted to being a farm wife. Her husband, taciturn Robin, is less bereaved than relieved, since Caro stopped loving him long ago, but their adopted daughter, Judy, has always taken her mother's part and bitterly resents both her father and his dairy farm. Robin's parents live nearby, raising crops on their own acreage, and so does Robin's troubled brother, Joe, and his needy wife, Lindsay. Trollope does an excellent job of describing the dynamics of farm life, both the unremitting labor and the encroachment of modern techniques. As usual, she conveys the nuances of marriage, in which lack of communication can breed tragedy. After another family death and Robin's unexpected attraction to Judy's flaky London flatmate, Zoe, the novel becomes a crucible of change, realistically describing how brave people pull themselves together and move on. In addition to crafting an absorbing narrative, Trollope charms with her depiction of several young children, whose speech and behavior are captured with clarity and endearing fidelity.
