First Love, Last Love

Oct 26, 2024 4:35 PM

Author:Katie Flynn

A powerful story of two sisters, and the love that changed their lives

It wasn't a privileged childhood, but it was a happy one. Sybil and Lizzie Cream, brought up in a fisherman's cottage on the edge of the cold North Sea were content to leave privilege where it belonged: with their friends the Wintertons. Christina Winterton was the same age as Sybil and the two girls were inseparable, but it was Lizzie whom Ralph Winterton, three years older, found irresistible.

Then war came to East Anglia, and so did Manchester-born Fenn Kitzmann now of the American Army Air Force. At their first meeting he is attracted by Sybil's subtle charm, but before he sees her again her own personal tragedy has struck, and he finds her changed almost out of recognition...

Reviews

Hull's answer to Catherine Cookson

—— BBC Radio 4's Front Row

A heart-warming story filled with compelling action

—— Rosie Goodwin

Wonderfully fully-fleshed characters are the mainstay of [Val Wood's] stories

—— Peterborough Telegraph

A gripping saga

—— The People's Friend

Pleasurable... Like Steinbeck, de Bernières deserves praise for his imaginative sympathy

—— Independent on Sunday

Shafak will challenge Paulo Coelho's dominance

—— The Independent

An honour killing is at the centre of this stunning novel... Exotic, evocative and utterly gripping

—— The Times

Lushly and memorably magic-realist... This is an extraordinarily skilfully crafted and ambitious narrative

—— The Independent

The book calls to mind The Color Purple in the fierceness of its engagement with male violence and its determination to see its characters to a better place. But Shafak is closer to Isabel Allende in spirit, confidence and charm. Her portrayal of Muslim cultures, both traditional and globalising, is as hopeful as it is politically sophisticated. This alone should gain her the world audience she has long deserved

—— The Guardian

In Honour, Shafak treats an important, absorbing subject in a fast-paced, internationally familiar style that will make it accessible to a wide readership

—— Sunday Times

Fascinating and gripping - a wonderful novel

—— Rosamund Lupton, author of Sister

Vivid storytelling... that explores the darkest aspects of faith and love

—— Sunday Telegraph

Moving, subtle and ultimately hopeful, Honour is further proof that Shafak is the most exciting Turkish novelist to reach western readers in years

—— Irish Times

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