Some Luck by Jane Smiley (English) Paperback Book

Description: Some Luck by Jane Smiley The first novel in a dazzling new epic trilogy from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a literary adventure that will span a century in America. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley comes the first instalment in a landmark trilogy spanning the last hundred years."Intimate . . . Miraculous . . . Staggering . . . A masterpiece in the making." USA TodayLife can change in an instant, and as those changes amass over the course of one hundred years, something extraordinary happens - history is made. In this masterful novel, Jane Smiley explores the triumphs and tragedies of one family, while casting a panoramic eye on the first half of the twentieth century, a time of monumental change.Some Luck opens on the humble, heavily indebted Langdon family farm in 1920. We meet Rosanna and Walter, their curious, brilliant newborn Frank. Soon the family grows to five children, all wildly different yet remarkable, with such potential to mark history in their own ways. Yet as time passes, as it must, some thrive as others fall victim to flaws and fate. Who will persevere? Who will simply, sadly, be forgotten?With shared joys and hushed secrets, through times of economic and political volatility, Some Luck examines the nature of family, character, and how we are all changed by circumstances unforeseen.National Book Award Nominee 2014A Best Book of the Year 2014: The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, The Seattle Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, BookPage Notes The first novel in this epic trilogy from Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley; a literary adventure spanning a century in America. After his return from the battlefields in France, Walter Langdon and his wife Rosanna begin their life together on a remote farm in Iowa. Tender, compelling, and moving from the 1920s to the 1950s, told in multiple voices as rich as the Iowan soil. Now in paperback. Back Cover The first novel in a dazzling new epic trilogy from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a literary adventure that will span a century in America. 1920. After his return from the battlefields in France, Walter Langdon and his wife Rosanna begin their life together on a remote farm in Iowa. As the couple struggle to keep their family through good years and hard years - to years more desperate than they ever could have imagined - the world around their little farm will turn, and life for their children will be unrecognizable from what came before. Some will fall in love, some will have families of their own, some will go to war and some will not survive. All will mark history in their own way. Tender, compelling and moving from the 1920s to the 1950s, told in multiple voices as rich as the Iowan soil, Some Luck is an astonishing feat of storytelling by a prize-winning author writing at the height of her powers. Flap The first novel in a dazzling new epic trilogy from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a literary adventure that will span a century in America. 1920. After his return from the battlefields in France, Walter Langdon and his wife Rosanna begin their life together on a remote farm in Iowa. As the couple struggle to keep their family through good years and hard years - to years more desperate than they ever could have imagined - the world around their little farm will turn, and life for their children will be unrecognizable from what came before. Some will fall in love, some will have families of their own, some will go to war and some will not survive. All will mark history in their own way. Tender, compelling and moving from the 1920s to the 1950s, told in multiple voices as rich as the Iowan soil, Some Luck is an astonishing feat of storytelling by a prize-winning author writing at the height of her powers. Author Biography Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, as well as five works of nonfiction and a series of books for young adults. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2006 she received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. Her novel Horse Heaven was short-listed for the Orange Prize in 2002, and her latest novel, Private Life, was chosen as one of the best books of 2010 by the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the Washington Post. She lives in northern California. Review So here it is at last, the Great American Novel and, in retrospect, it seems obvious that the great Jane Smiley would be the one who wrote it. Some Luck is a Steinbeckian Little House on the Prairie: a rural tragedy, a domestic epic and an unassuming masterpiece. And, unlike most masterpieces, its absorbing, witty, painful, pleasurable. You must read it. -- Charlotte Mendelson, Booker/Orange Prize nominated author of Almost English and When We Were BadA masterpiece in the making . . . intimate, miraculous-the auspicious beginning of an American saga every bit as ambitious as Updikes magnum opus, anchored in the satisfactions and challenges of life on a farm, but expanding to various American cities and beyond . . . An abundant harvest. * USA Today *Fans of big-cast family sagas with love and death and the world at large impinging only lightly - but tellingly - on events will love Some Luck. It is an easy and engrossing read with the cornfields, the snowstorms and the technological developments of the 20th century vividly evoked. * Independent *Try to pin Jane Smiley down at your peril: she is as likely to write a campus novel (Moo) as a 14th-century historical saga (The Greenlanders) or a foray into the world of breeders and racetracks (Horse Heaven). . . Some Luck is not simply an observation of family life and the pressures it is naturally susceptible to; it is also a dissection of the idea of family, and of the truths its facade will shield from view. * Guardian *Smileys gifts as a storyteller are in full force from the first page, drawing us into the lives of the characters. The children especially, with their emerging personalities, are marvellously evoked. * Financial Times *Smiley is a master storyteller, with a penchant for turning archetypal allegories into seemingly straightforward, contemporary narratives . . . Jane Smiley is that rare three-fer: meticulous historian, intelligent humorist and seasoned literary novelist. But what makes a Smiley novel identifiably and deliciously hers alone is a unique brand of impassioned critical patriotism . . . Some Luck is the first in a trilogy to be called "The Last Hundred Years." Like Smiley herself, the project is ambitious and coyly clever. * LA TIMES *Audaciously delicious . . . Every character here steals our heart. Smiley has turned her considerable talents to the story of an Iowa farm and the people who inhabit it. The suspense is found in the impeccably drawn scenes and in the myriad ways in which Smiley narrows and opens her cameras lens. Her language has the intimacy of a first-person telling; her stance is in-the-moment . . . We read these lives, and we find our own. * CHICAGO TRIBUNE *The good news? This is the first of a trilogy. The bad news? We have to wait for the next volume. * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY *Engaging, bold . . . Smiley delivers a straightforward, old-fashioned tale of rural family life in changing times, depicting isolated farm life with precision . . . It is especially satisfying to hear a powerful writer narrate mens and womens lives lovingly and with equal attention. Subtle, wry and moving. * WASHINGTON POST *Moving and alert and alive . . . A book about the ordinary nothings that, in the end, are everything . . . To capture this experience - finitude, love, sorrow, the rise and fall of generations - is insanely difficult. To foster the illusion of realism in a novelistic fantasy, to convey the passage of time. * Spectator *Some Luck is as rich, beautiful and brilliant as Smileys Pulitzer-Prize-winning A Thousand Acres. Place bets now for this years Booker. -- Kate Saunders, Costa-winning author and critic * Saga magazine * Promotional The first novel in a dazzling new epic trilogy from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a literary adventure that will span a century in America. Prizes Long-listed for The Folio Prize 2015 (UK) Review Quote So here it is at last, the Great American Novel and, in retrospect, it seems obvious that the great Jane Smiley would be the one who wrote it. Some Luck is a Steinbeckian Little House on the Prairie: a rural tragedy, a domestic epic and an unassuming masterpiece. And, unlike most masterpieces, its absorbing, witty, painful, pleasurable. You must read it. Promotional "Headline" The first novel in a dazzling new epic trilogy from the winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a literary adventure that will span a century in America. Details ISBN1447275608 Author Jane Smiley Publisher Pan Macmillan Year 2015 ISBN-10 1447275608 ISBN-13 9781447275602 Format Paperback Publication Date 2015-02-26 Media Book Imprint Picador Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 813.6 Edition Main Market Ed. Pages 640 Series Last Hundred Years Trilogy Audience Age 18 Language English UK Release Date 2015-02-26 Audience General AU Release Date 2015-02-28 NZ Release Date 2015-02-28 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:91807251;

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