{"product_id":"white-lightning-sceptre-21s-9780340936368","title":"White Lightning Sceptre 21s","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Whitbread-shortlisted novel from the bestselling author of THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA work of literary art, a mellow, beautifully constructed fable about the human hunger for goodness, it is by far the best thing Cartwright has done . . . [He] has caught to perfection the perplexities of a good man struggling for self-awareness' * Sunday Telegraph *\u003cbr\u003eBrilliant, dazzling, unsettling; subtle and haunting; complex and multi-layered; deeply moving * Suzi Feay, \u003ci\u003e Independent on Sunday \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eOne of the finest novelists currently at work ... An altogether stunning achievement * D.J. Taylor, \u003ci\u003e Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eHauntingly brilliant ... It is the best novel I have read this year. * Mick Brown, \u003ci\u003e Daily Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eJustin Cartwright's new novel may well be his finest - in an already accomplished oeuvre. Wry, achingly true and profound without being sententious, it's a moving and bleakly funny look at life's hellish demands and occasional moments of happiness. * William Boyd, \u003ci\u003e Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eApart from being a profoundly serious writer, Cartwright can also be an abrasively amusing one. Scarcely a page of this book fails to yield some pleasure. WHITE LIGHTNING is a book of substantial merit. * Francis King, \u003ci\u003e Literary Review \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eThis is fictional skill of the highest order. * Penelope Lively, \u003ci\u003e Independent \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eBeguiling. With this novel, Cartwright, a former Whitbread Award winner has put it all together - style, story, theme - to produce something exceptional. * Giles Newington, \u003ci\u003e Irish Times \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eSubtle and moving...Cartwright weaves the story of the man and the baboon with a magicians's delicacy...White Lightning underlines the intelligence and breadth of imagination that this former Whitbread Novel of the Year winner brings to every single paragraph of his work. * \u003ci\u003e Daily Mail \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eCartwright is a wise and perceptive novelist, keen to probe the dark places of the human heart and the complexities of post-colonial Africa, and possessed of a laudable ability to capture life as it rushes past at terrible speed. * James Smart, \u003ci\u003e Sunday Herald \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eThis is a moving story of a man totally alone, and a powerful evocation of a country yet to come to terms with its tragedy-strewn destiny. * Ros Drinkwater, \u003ci\u003e LiveWire \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eCartwright is a beautifully evocative writer; also one who makes you think... The rhythm is perfect, and almost every page offers such delights. * Allan Massie, \u003ci\u003e Scotsman \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eNo amount of irony or humour can blunt the remorseless message contained in this tender, terrible tragedy. * Rosemary Goring, \u003ci\u003e Glasgow Herald \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eCartwright's portrayal of the relationship between the man and the baboon is masterly. You know it is going to end in tears - WHITE LIGHTNING is, above all else, a book of echoes - but still the ending packs a punch of frustration and sadness. * Claudia FitzHerbert, \u003ci\u003e Daily Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eCartwright is a hugely skilled writer and his novels are always interesting. [He] can produce passages of uncommon beauty. * Michael Thompson-Noel, \u003ci\u003e Financial Times \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eExquisitely moving. * Edwina Currie, \u003ci\u003e New Statesman \u003c\/i\u003e Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eCartwright is a brilliant observer and writes extremely well. [He] has produced an X-ray of modern man's soul. * Anthony Daniels, \u003ci\u003e Evening Standard \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eCartwright manages to combine the thrilling readability of genre fiction with the unpredictability and strangeness of a literary master. It's astonishing that he still isn't spoken of in the same breath as Amis and McEwen: he ought to be. * Suzi Feay, \u003ci\u003e Independent on Sunday \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003eThis questioning, elegiac novel is much more than just another portrayal of mid-life crisis. It deserves a place beside those accounts of Africa, from Conrad to Naipaul, which encapsulate an outsider's sense of this world as both alluring and forbidding, and always only half-understood. * David Horspool, \u003ci\u003e Times Literary Supplement \u003c\/i\u003e *","brand":"Hodder \u0026 Stoughton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49083480146263,"sku":"9780340936368","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780340936368.jpg?v=1725549079","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/white-lightning-sceptre-21s-9780340936368","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}