Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008
Spanning a time from 1950's London to the present day we follow Vivien's story to discover her family history, her parents are immigrants who have kept her sheltered from their past, and to find her own place in the world. A moving and tender novel.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
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In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sandor so violently unwelcome in her parents' home? This is a novel about survival - both banal and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live. Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise and tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.
The Clothes on Their Backs features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
The Clothes on Their Backs is available in Paperback
The Clothes on Their Backs was written by Linda Grant and published by Little, Brown Book Group
The Clothes on Their Backs has 293 pages
£9.89