Glover's Mistake is a second novel from Nicholas 'Nick' Laird, who was born in 1975 in Northern Ireland and grew up in Cookstown, Co.Tyrone. He studied at Sideny Sussex College, Cambridge, where he attained a first in English. He went on to work at the global law firm Allen & Overy in London for six years, before leaving to concentrate on his writing. Since 2004, he has been married to novelist Zadie Smith, whom he met while at Cambridge. All of Laird's books, both poetry and novels, have been well-reviewed and he has won a number of awards - 2005 Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection shortlist) and Rooney Prize for Irish Literature; 2006 Betty Trask Prize and Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best First Book, shortlist); 2008 Somerset Maugham Award; 2009 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Some critics have argued that his marriage to Zadie Smith and his prominence within the London literary world have exaggerated his success, but I think this is unfair and he is without doubt a very talented writer. Now is a good time to build a collection of his work - the limited edition of his second poetry collection, On Purpose, is likely to be a key book if he achieves long term success, and it is a fine production.
"When David Pinner introduces his former teacher, the American artist Ruth Marks, to his friend and flatmate James Glover, he unwittingly sets in place a love triangle loaded with tension, guilt and heartbreak. As David plays reluctant witness (and more) to James and Ruth's escalating love affair, he must come to terms with his own blighted emotional life. Set in the London art scene awash with new money and intellectual pretension, in the sleek galleries and posh restaurants of a Britannia resurgent with cultural and economic power, Nick Laird's insightful and drolly satirical novel vividly portrays three people whose world gradually fractures along the fault lines of desire, truth and jealousy. With wit and compassion, Laird explores the very nature of contemporary romance, among damaged souls whose hearts and heads never quite line up long enough for them to achieve true happiness."
Bibliography
To A Fault (Faber and Faber, 2005). First poetry collection, original in French wraps.
Utterly Monkey (Fourth Estate, 2005). First novel; paperback original.
On Purpose (Faber and Faber, 2007). A second collection of poems. Paperback original, but in addition there was a 50 signed/numbered limited edition hardback, bound in cream boards with quarter blue cloth and contained in matching blue slipcase.
Glover's Mistake (Fourth Estate, 2008). Hardcover in dustwrapper.
"When David Pinner introduces his former teacher, the American artist Ruth Marks, to his friend and flatmate James Glover, he unwittingly sets in place a love triangle loaded with tension, guilt and heartbreak. As David plays reluctant witness (and more) to James and Ruth's escalating love affair, he must come to terms with his own blighted emotional life. Set in the London art scene awash with new money and intellectual pretension, in the sleek galleries and posh restaurants of a Britannia resurgent with cultural and economic power, Nick Laird's insightful and drolly satirical novel vividly portrays three people whose world gradually fractures along the fault lines of desire, truth and jealousy. With wit and compassion, Laird explores the very nature of contemporary romance, among damaged souls whose hearts and heads never quite line up long enough for them to achieve true happiness."
Bibliography
To A Fault (Faber and Faber, 2005). First poetry collection, original in French wraps.
Utterly Monkey (Fourth Estate, 2005). First novel; paperback original.
On Purpose (Faber and Faber, 2007). A second collection of poems. Paperback original, but in addition there was a 50 signed/numbered limited edition hardback, bound in cream boards with quarter blue cloth and contained in matching blue slipcase.
Glover's Mistake (Fourth Estate, 2008). Hardcover in dustwrapper.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment