Love Child
A Novel
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- ¥1,000
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- ¥1,000
発行者による作品情報
An enthralling new novel from the highly acclaimed author of Becoming Jane Eyre. Sheila Kohler's memoir Once We Were Sisters is now available.
The compelling story of a forbidden marriage, a baby lost, and a love triangle gone horribly wrong, Love Child centers on Bill, a South African woman whose life has been defined by the apartheid-era, class-riven society in which she lives. Under pressure to make her will, Bill is forced to think about the momentous events and decisions that have made her an extremely wealthy if somewhat disillusioned woman. To whom should she leave her fortune? As Bill relives her past, we learn that this is a simple question with a complicated answer. In elegant, sensual, and nuanced prose, Kohler skillfully explores the space between our dreams and our reality, between our hopes and our disappointments.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A widowed South African woman of 48 confronts the betrayals of her past in Kohler's graceful new novel (after Becoming Jane Eyre). "Bill" (whose tomboy youth earned her that nickname) lives comfortably with the fortune her husband Mark left her in his will. Having come from a poor family, she's never felt comfortable with wealth; feels judged by her sons, Philip and Mark, who are more responsible than she was at their age; and hasn't even made her own will. The family accountant's arrival at the estate sparks a long recollection of her reckless past. In 1925, at the age of 17, she eloped with a Jewish boy. Her intolerant family convinced her to annul the marriage, and nine months later they took her newborn and gave it away, robbing Bill of her second love. As the story progresses through the first half of the 20th century, Bill becomes a nurse's aide to a depressed, worldly woman named Helen. The two become friends, then competitors, as Helen's husband, Mark, increasingly turns his attention toward Bill. Kohler's tale is full of tension, haunting images, and admirable restraint.
