{"product_id":"someone-at-a-distance","title":"Someone at a Distance","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0743\/6428\/9071\/files\/Persephone.png?v=1775729186\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis Fifties novel about a quietly catastrophic love triangle is beautiful and moving,' was the headline in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e under which the following review of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSomeone at a Distance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, by Rachel Joyce, recently appeared:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'Published in 1953 and set in England’s rural commuter belt, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSomeone at a Distance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis a love triangle with two unlikely protagonists.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWho is responsible for changing the course of our lives, the novel asks? Is it ourselves, those closest to us, or can our lives be\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eshaped by people we don’t even know?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'Ellen North is a good woman. She loves her husband, Avery, a London publisher, and her home, her garden and her children. She is kind\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand considerate. She prefers staying in to going out, and if she’s guilty of anything, it’s an almost naive faith in the simplicity of\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003elife. The only blot on the landscape is Avery’s mother, Mrs North, a woman who likes to complain about how neglected she\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is. So when Mrs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNorth takes on a young Frenchwoman as a live-in companion, everything seems perfect.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e'But beautiful Louise Lanier is trouble. Jilted by her aristocratic lover because she’s a provincial shopkeeper’s\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edaughter (ie not the sort you marry), Louise has fled to England to lick her wounds. Louise is one of\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eliterature’s worse narcissists. She is Emma Bovary without the nice bits. When Mrs North dies and makes Louise a\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ebeneficiary of her will, Ellen does the “right” thing and invites Louise to stay. Within no time Louise has set\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eher sights on Avery. She doesn’t even want Avery. She just wants to feel desired. She just wants what another\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewoman already has...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Someone at a Distance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eis a beautiful and moving story, not just about love, but the lies we tell to protect love. Whipple writes her characters with the kind of understanding that comes from a keen observer of the ordinary. Her style is clear-eyed and precise, superbly elegant and subtle, witty but never showy. Her characters live and breathe and leave little footprints wherever they go; even the minor ones. And it’s her attention to the small things — sentences that are only half-finished, furtive glances, hands that brush one another in passing, the smell of nicotiana on a hot summer night, that make the storytelling so powerful. We see the inevitability of the drama, long before the characters in the middle of it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eThe 1950s linen furnishing fabric by Ashley Havinden is based on drawings done in the 1930s when Ellen furnished her house; it combines a menacing feel with a hint of the domestic.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dorothy Whipple","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44960222150703,"sku":"9780953478026","price":1599.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0743\/6428\/9071\/files\/someoneatadistance.png?v=1775723258","url":"https:\/\/lunabooks.in\/products\/someone-at-a-distance","provider":"Luna Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}