Description

Book Synopsis
Johnny, an outstanding young swimmer, went missing nearly thirty years ago: drowned, or so everyone except his sister Imogen believes. How could this have happened? Encouraged, pushed even, from a child by his father, Johnny could have made the Olympic team, couldn''t he? As Imogen gradually pieces together bits of her family history, we hear the tragic echoes that connect her with the Great War and Ireland in the nineteen-twenties.

Trade Review
The quiet, elegiac prose is well sustained * Guardian *
Characters damaged by their upbringing are Jennifer Johnston's metier, and echoes are a favourite motif. In what is, despite its title, a very fine novel, the tragedies of her family's past recur as Imogen's words resound off the coastal bay. A taut narrative, pared prose and lyrical imagery add up to a sad affirmation of Philip Larkin's adage * Saturday Telegraph *
Characteristically wry [and] intelligent * Eileen Battersby, Irish Times *

This Is Not a Novel

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    A Paperback / softback by Jennifer Johnston

    £9.99

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    Order before 4pm on Saturday for delivery by Thu 19 Nov 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Headline Publishing Group
      Published 7 July 2003
      ISBN-13 9780747269465
      978-0747269465
      ISBN-10 0747269467

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Johnny, an outstanding young swimmer, went missing nearly thirty years ago: drowned, or so everyone except his sister Imogen believes. How could this have happened? Encouraged, pushed even, from a child by his father, Johnny could have made the Olympic team, couldn''t he? As Imogen gradually pieces together bits of her family history, we hear the tragic echoes that connect her with the Great War and Ireland in the nineteen-twenties.

      Trade Review
      The quiet, elegiac prose is well sustained * Guardian *
      Characters damaged by their upbringing are Jennifer Johnston's metier, and echoes are a favourite motif. In what is, despite its title, a very fine novel, the tragedies of her family's past recur as Imogen's words resound off the coastal bay. A taut narrative, pared prose and lyrical imagery add up to a sad affirmation of Philip Larkin's adage * Saturday Telegraph *
      Characteristically wry [and] intelligent * Eileen Battersby, Irish Times *

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