2002 Booker Prize (longlist)
A stunningly atmospheric and powerful new novel set in 1946 on the east coast of England.
Late summer 1946: the Wash on the fenland coast. Into a suspicious and isolated community comes James Mercer, until recently a captain in the Engineers, now employed in the demolition of redundant gun platforms. A relationship grows between Mercer and the wife of a soldier who is expected home very soon, and whose arrival is awaited with anxiety. Mercer also befriends Mathias, a German prisoner of war engaged in similar work who has no wish to be repatriated; and Jacob, a Jew and camp survivor. Mercer soon learns there is a bond between the German and the Jew, and is drawn further into their history as the ex-soldier finally returns and begins to re-establish his overbearing authority. In a place where nothing has changed for decades, the agents of
destruction and renewal are at work. As the summer dies, animosities flare, prejudices and enmities are burnished and the six main characters circle each other like the combatants they believe themselves to be.
In his powerful new novel, Edric captures with breathtaking economy the sense of portent and uncertainty shared by a community in the aftermath of conflict -- a community for which peacetime is hardly any different from wartime.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Late summer 1946: the Wash on the fenland coast. Into a suspicious and isolated community comes James Mercer, until recently a captain in the Engineers, now employed in the demolition of redundant gun platforms. A relationship grows between Mercer and the wife of a soldier who is expected home very soon, and whose arrival is awaited with anxiety. Mercer also befriends Mathias, a German prisoner of war engaged in similar work who has no wish to be repatriated; and Jacob, a Jew and camp survivor. Mercer soon learns there is a bond between the German and the Jew, and is drawn further into their history as the ex-soldier finally returns and begins to re-establish his overbearing authority. In a place where nothing has changed for decades, the agents of
destruction and renewal are at work. As the summer dies, animosities flare, prejudices and enmities are burnished and the six main characters circle each other like the combatants they believe themselves to be.
In his powerful new novel, Edric captures with breathtaking economy the sense of portent and uncertainty shared by a community in the aftermath of conflict -- a community for which peacetime is hardly any different from wartime.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Visitors also looked at these books
From the Republic of Conscience
Maeve Binchy, John Boyne, John Connolly, Roddy Doyle, Seamus Heaney, Jennifer Johnston, Neil Jordan, Colum McCann, Frank McCourt and Colm Tóibín
Used availability for Robert Edric's Peacetime