{"product_id":"twelve-postwar-tales-9781398535480","title":"Twelve PostWar Tales","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe remarkable new work of fiction from the Booker Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eLast Orders\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWaterland\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMothering Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e '\u003c\/b\u003eHis archly modulated, precise prose, reminiscent at times of his friend Kazuo Ishiguro’s, has lost none of its power ... immensely readable late-career Swift from start to finish, \u003ci\u003eTwelve Post-War Tales \u003c\/i\u003eis a marvel of the storyteller's art.'\u003cb\u003e \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘There can surely be no better contemporary writer to take on history’s circularities that Graham Swift. … “Growing up in the 1950s there was all the evidence of war.” Swift has said. This beautiful cluster of stories shows how vital it remains in recollection.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'Skilful, generous and humane, these 12 tales suggest the complexity and heartbreak of being engaged on such an uncertain journey.' \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuardian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘The characters in this collection share their thoughts and memories with the reader as though with a close friend, and the warmth of their confidences balances against their sadness. We feel we’ve been in the trenches with them, even when a story has gone no farther than the living room.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘[A] subtle, empathic collection written with tenderness and gentle humour’, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSydney Morning Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘[S]ome of Graham Swift’s finest stories. … A clever, subtle and satisfying collection’, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNZ Listener\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eA brilliant, illuminating collection of short fiction, perhaps the author's best’, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'Humane, deceptively simple and utterly compelling, this might well be Swift's best book.' \u003cb\u003eDaunt Books \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eThese stories, depth charges of love, anguish, resentment, each in their way relating to the effects of WW2, are so good. Swift at his best – and he’s on top form here – has the humanity and wry humour of William Trevor’,\u003cb\u003e Patrick Gale\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'Quite wonderful. Such grace and clarity - I'm filled with admiration', \u003cb\u003ePhilip Pullman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the aftermath of the Second World War Private Joseph Caan, a young Jewish soldier stationed in Germany, seeks the truth about lost family members; in the 1960s a father focuses on his daughter’s wedding even as the Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink of disaster; in 2001, while planes fly into the Twin Towers, a maid working for US Embassy staff in London wonders if her birth on the day of the Kennedy assassination shaped her life; and at the height of a pandemic lockdown, Dr. Cole, a retired specialist in respiratory disease, returns to work and recalls a formative childhood encounter with illness and much more. These are just a few of the challenged characters we meet in Graham Swift’s \u003ci\u003eTwelve Post-war Tales\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Tender, humane, funny and moving, Swift’s latest work of fiction displays his quietly commanding ability to set the personal and the ordinary against the harsh sweep of history. It is an outstanding achievement, confirming his status as one of the great and subtlest voices of our age.\u003cbr\u003e   \u003cb\u003ePraise for Swift's most recent novel, \u003ci\u003eHere We Are\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e    \u003cbr\u003e 'A magical piece of writing: the work of a novelist on scintillating form.' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘\u003ci\u003eHere We Are \u003c\/i\u003esmuggles within the pages of a seemingly commonplace tale depths of emotion and narrative complexity that take the breath away.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘The book’s power comes precisely from the fact that it performs its magic in front of your eyes, leaving nowhere to hide . . . you wonder how he does it.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘With a wizardry of his own, Swift conjures up an about-to-disappear little world and turns it into something of wider resonance.’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 'Swift has no equal in evoking the atmosphere of an era while probing human psychology with irony and tenderness.' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eL’Express\u003c\/i\u003e, France\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘Swift doesn’t write, he whispers’, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCorriere della Sera\u003c\/i\u003e, Italy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  “In a dozen pages Swift can embrace a whole life”, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung\u003c\/i\u003e, Germany\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51019719180631,"sku":"9781398535480","price":17.09,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781398535480.jpg?v=1750781131","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/twelve-postwar-tales-9781398535480","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}