A story of four lives torn apart by war, falling in and out of love, and the unlikely moments that come to define a life - now available in paperback
Helen Humphreys is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. Humphreys' first novel, Leaving Earth, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 and won the City of Toronto Book Award. She is also the author of The Reinvention of Love, True Story, and The Evening Chorus.
A poised, lyrical novel about the griefs of war, written with
poetic intensity of observation
*Helen Dunmore*
Poignantly explores the sorrows of war and consolations of nature
... A story of heartbreak and hope, it unfolds against a
mesmerizingly described natural world.
*Mail on Sunday*
The Evening Chorus serenades people brutally marked by war yet
enduring to live the tiny pleasures of another day. With her
trademark prose Humphreys convinces us of the birdlike strength of
the powerless.
*Emma Donoghue*
In The Evening Chorus the interventions of war, and the resulting
human tragedies, play out against a natural world at once remote,
alien and ultimately redemptive. The novel has a crystalline
quality about it - it's clear and complex and self-contained. It
sparkles.
*Jo Baker, author of Longbourn*
If there's a writer of English prose with a more profound
connection to the natural world and to the subtleties of human love
and sorrow than Helen Humphreys, I don't know who it is. The
Evening Chorus is rich with her particular gift for symphonic
cadences and beautiful imagery that moves a story forward with the
momentum of a big train gathering speed. This riveting novel is a
song. Listen.
*Richard Bausch, author of The Last Good Time, the forthcoming
Before, During, After and others*
Humphreys has a gift for complex characterization, which she
renders in a few terse strokes.
*The Boston Globe*
Humphreys has an impeccable command of imagery, and her prose finds
strength in its subtlety.
*Publishers Weekly*
A heartbreaking yet redemptive story about loss and survival
surrounding a British prisoner of war during World War II and the
wife he barely got to know before his capture ... Humphreys
deserves more recognition for the emotional intensity and evocative
lyricism of her seemingly straightforward prose and for her ability
to quietly squirrel her way into the reader's heart.
*Kirkus*
A lyrical narrative about loss, love and the natural world.
*Country Life*
A lyrical novel about war and the natural world and their effects
on human beings. Beautifully written, the story it tells about the
secrets within relationships, some expected, others surprising,
makes this novel a quiet pleasure.
*Diva*
Humphreys has spun an atmospheric yarn, and her descriptions of
flora and fauna always engage.
*Daily Mail*
An uplifting novel that explores the fragility of wartime lives and
the awe-inspiring strength of survivors.
*The Lady*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |