Letters from an Unknown Woman
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
With her children evacuated and her husband at the front, Tory Pace is grudgingly sharing the family home with her irascible mother; working at the local gelatin factory—to help the war effort—and generally doing just about as well as could be expected in difficult times. Her quiet life is thrown into turmoil, however, when her prisoner-of-war husband, Donald, makes an outrageous demand for sexual gratification. He wants a dirty letter! Horrified, at first, that Donald is being turned into some sort of monster by the Nazis, Tory's disgust gradually gives way to a sense of marital duty, and taking in the libraries, bookshops, public conveniences, and barbers' shops of South-East London, she begins a quest to master the language of carnal desire: a quest that takes a sudden and unexpected turn into far more dangerous territory. Beginning with an act of unintentional cannibalism, and flirting with a scheme to end world hunger by the use of protein pills, Letters from an Unknown Woman ranges widely across the Continent and yet always returns home: to family, to people, to relationships. Woodward offers a prescient examination of the ways in which we both nurture and consume each other in the face of adversity.
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Gerard Woodward. (2012). Letters from an Unknown Woman. Unabridged Blackstone Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Gerard Woodward. 2012. Letters From an Unknown Woman. Blackstone Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Gerard Woodward, Letters From an Unknown Woman. Blackstone Publishing, 2012.
MLA Citation (style guide)Gerard Woodward. Letters From an Unknown Woman. Unabridged Blackstone Publishing, 2012.
| Library | Owned | Available |
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Gerard Woodward is the author of a number of novels, including Nourishment and an acclaimed trilogy comprising August (shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread First Novel Award), I'll Go to Bed at Noon (shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize), and A Curious Earth. He was born in London in 1961 and published several prizewinning collections of poetry before turning to fiction. His collection of poetry We Were Pedestrians was shortlisted for the 2005 T. S. Eliot Prize. He is professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University.
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With her children evacuated and her husband at the front, Tory Pace is grudgingly sharing the family home with her irascible mother; working at the local gelatin factory—to help the war effort—and generally doing just about as well as could be expected in difficult times. Her quiet life is thrown into turmoil, however, when her prisoner-of-war husband, Donald, makes an outrageous demand for sexual gratification. He wants a dirty letter! Horrified, at first, that Donald is being turned into some sort of monster by the Nazis, Tory's disgust gradually gives way to a sense of marital duty, and taking in the libraries, bookshops, public conveniences, and barbers' shops of South-East London, she begins a quest to master the language of carnal desire: a quest that takes a sudden and unexpected turn into far more dangerous territory. Beginning with an act of unintentional cannibalism, and flirting with a scheme to end world hunger by the use of protein pills, Letters from an Unknown Woman ranges widely across the Continent and yet always returns home: to family, to people, to relationships. Woodward offers a prescient examination of the ways in which we both nurture and consume each other in the face of adversity.
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Starred review from August 29, 2011
Woodward’s brilliant exploration of ordinary lives caught in extraordinary circumstances showcases an imaginative wit, pointed insight, and a flare for the unexpected. After her husband, Donald, is called up to the front during WWII, Tory Pace sends her children to the English countryside and reluctantly accepts her mother’s decision to move in with her in London, despite the prospect of air raids. When Tory receives an official letter declaring Donald “missing,” she’s devastated, but when she gets a second letter, from Donald himself (with a very out-of-character request), she’s shocked; he wants his heretofore unexpressive wife to write him “really filthy” letters “full of all the dirtiest words and deeds you can think of.” This appeal sends Tory on an hilarious and, at times, touching quest to satisfy her husband’s unusual demand, culminating in an affair with her gelatin factory boss. Woodward (A Curious Earth, shortlisted for the Man Booker) takes a unique approach to the hardships women faced during wartime, the impact of the war on the men who survived, and the ways in which the children who lived through it tried to make sense of their upended lives, turning a story about one family’s struggles into a tale of self-discovery, overcoming despair, and finding one’s rightful place in the world. Best of all is the ingenious use of Toby’s salacious letters and Woodward’s not-so-subtle indictment of commercial publishing.
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