Tales Of The City

Oct 6, 2024 4:18 AM

Author:Armistead Maupin

Tales Of The City

The first novel in the belovedTales of the Cityseries, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga, is an uproariously moving novel and an indelible portrait of cultural change from the seventies.

Named as one of the BBC’s 100 Most Inspiring Novels, a PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick and Britain’s favourite gay/lesbian novel from The Big Gay Read

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Originally serialised in the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1970s, Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life.

Among the cast of this ground-breaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brian Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal.

Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through nail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.

Reviews

A consummate entertainer... It is Maupin's Dickensian gift to be able to render love convincingly

—— Edmund White , The Times Literary Supplement

Maupin is a richly gifted comic author

—— Observer

San Francisco is fortunate in having a chronicler as witty and likeable as Armistead Maupin

—— Independent

Like those of Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Armistead Maupin's novels have all appeared originally as serials... it is the strength of this approach, with its fantastic adventures and astonishingly contrived coincidences, that makes these novels charming and compelling

—— Literary Review

Hilarious and full of surprises

—— Daily Telegraph

Warm, witty and wise

—— Daily Mail

Hilarious yet poignant

—— Sophie Kinsella

Classy, wonderfully gossipy and breathless

—— Red

We defy you not to get caught up in Alliott's life-changing tale

—— Heat

Proves that a serious, intricate book can also be a page turner...manifest intelligence, subtle humor and extraordinary texturing of the past within the present make Possession original and unforgettable

—— Time

Shimmers with something close to genius ... If I become famous enough to be the castaway on Desert Island Discs, this is the book I'd choose. It requires effort but, trust me, it is a modern masterpiece

—— Val Hennessy , Daily Mail

I couldn't put this book down: a fabulously original love story

—— Lucy Dillon

Intriguing and uplifting - a real page-turner full of humour and mystery

—— Julie Cohen

Charmingly fun with bags of romance and laughs

—— Closer

Lyrical . . . Stedman’s debut signals a career certain to deliver future treasures

—— People

Stunning and memorable

—— Booklist

Heart-wrenching

—— Publisher's Weekly

Exquisite

—— Kirkus

Delicate and imaginative . . . beautifully written . . . deserves every single bit of its success

—— Scotsman

Like a lighthouse, [The Light Between Oceans] shines a light in dark places, and its emotional resonance will stay with you for days

—— Irish Examiner

A thought-provoking debut novel . . . this beautifully delineated tale of love and loss, right and wrong, and what we will do for the happiness of those most dear to us, is moving without being maudlin

—— Boston Globe

An extraordinary and heart-rending book about good people, tragic decisions, and the beauty found in each of them

—— Markus Zusak, author of THE BOOK THIEF

Mesmerising...the sheer passion and poetry of Stedman's prose carries us on a wave of emotion and heartbreak.

—— Women's Weekly

The Light Between Oceans unfurls in small acts, at first feeling slight to touch, then building in emotional substance. Into the spaces between words, Stedman breathes an anxiety and pulsating intensity that roils with the ocean and the lighthouse beacon.

—— Sydney Morning Herald

Pick of the month: The memorable and moving tale of one couple’s search for happiness

—— Woman and Home

A description of the extraordinary, sustaining power of a marriage to bind two people together in love, through the most emotionally harrowing circumstances.

—— Daily Mail

The characters are beautifully drawn...A completely unique read. ****

—— Heat Magazine

Book of the Week. Critics are buzzing about The Light Between Oceans, the gripping debut from M L Stedman.

—— Grazia Magazine

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