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Out Of This World

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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Out Of This World by Graham Swift intricately explores the lives of a family torn apart by personal and historical events. As the narrative weaves through perspectives of the estranged father and daughter, it delves into themes of memory, loss, and the search for understanding amidst complex familial relationships. Set against the backdrop of personal and global upheavals, the story examines how past trauma shapes present realities.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate layered narratives and psychological depth, as it explores the complexities of family relationships against a backdrop of historical events. It's likely to appeal to those interested in the intersections of personal history and broader socio-political contexts.

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As a novelist, Graham Swift delights in the possibilities of the human voice, imagining his way into the minds and hearts of an extraordinary range of characters.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LAST ORDERS AND MOTHERING SUNDAY, reissued for the first time in Scribner

In 1972, Robert Beech, a First World War veteran and prominent figure in the arms industry, is killed by a car bomb. The event cuts short the career of his son Harry, a news photographer, and comes close to destroying his granddaughter Sophie. Ten years later, Harry, now working in aerial photography, and Sophie, visiting an analyst in New York, remain scarred and divided by the event.

Around their broken relationship and Harry’s memories of his truncated career and his father, the novel builds a story that is acutely private yet sweepingly public, at the heart of which lies Harry’s lifelong dedication to the camera.

Out of This World spans many of the twentieth century’s scenes of conflict, but also contains some of Graham Swift’s most achingly intimate scenes of personal confrontation—scenes that, powerful and haunting as photographs can be, no photographs can capture.

‘Deserves to be ranked in the forefront of contemporary literature’ New York Times

‘Superb, profound’ Sunday Times

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781471187476

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 July 2019

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Scribner UK

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Graham Swift was born in 1949. He is the author of eleven novels, most recently Here We Are; three collections of short stories, including the highly praised England and Other Stories; and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland he won the Guardian Fiction Prize and with Last Orders the Booker Prize. Mothering Sunday became a worldwide bestseller and won the Hawthornden Prize for best work of imaginative literature. All three novels were made into films. His books have appeared in over thirty-five languages.  

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