A Far Cry from Kensington

Muriel Spark

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cover of the book A Far Cry from Kensington

Wickedly and adroitly executed.

— The New York Times

The fraying fringes of 1950s literary London

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A Far Cry from Kensington

Nancy Hawkins, the majestic narrator of A Far Cry From Kensington, takes us by the hand and leads us back to her threadbare years in postwar London, where she spent her days working for a mad, near-bankrupt publisher (“of very good books”) and her nights dispensing advice at her small South Kensington boarding house. She found evil everywhere: shady literary doings and a deadly enemy; anonymous letters; blackmail; and suicide.

Looking back on those years from her new perch in Italy, Mrs. Hawkins recounts how that time changed her life forever, using the novel as a platform for advice. “It’s easy to get thin,” she says. “You eat and drink the same as always, only half… I offer this advice without fee; it is included in the price of this book.”

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Edition Data

Paperback

published: May, 27 2014

ISBN:

9780811223027

Price U.S.:

15.95

Price CN:

Page Count:

176

Ebook

published: May, 27 2014

ISBN:

9780811220149

Price U.S.:

15.95

Muriel Spark

20th century Scottish novelist, poet and essayist

Wickedly and adroitly executed.

— The New York Times

Muriel Spark was a major 20th-century writer, an extraordinary and unique talent: her gifts were unusual — a piercing eye; an acute ear; an incisive, often caustic wit; a voice so distinctive; and a style so inimitable.

— The Chicago Tribune

A 1950s Kensington of shabby-genteel bedsitters, espresso bars—irradiated with the sudden glows of lyricism she can so beautifully effect.

— The Sunday Times (London)

This slip of a novel includes, among other things, anonymous threats, a fraudulent book publisher, the pseudoscience of radionics, the metaphysics of evil, a love story and an endorsement of cats. But Spark’s sly wit is what shimmers throughout.

— Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times