Behind the Scenes at the Museum

LoveReading Says

March 2014 Guest Editor Jojo Moyes on Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

I would, frankly, read Kate Atkinson's shopping list. This was the first book which really made me understand the importance of 'voice'. She's a writer who inspires as she's brave, and inventive, and you never know where her novels are going to go next, all too rare a trait, in my opinion. 

The Lovereading view...

This is very special.  Even with all she has written since and with her change of direction into crime mysteries this, her first novel, in my mind still stands out as her best.  It is simply just the life of Ruby and her dysfunctional family.  It’s warm, addictive, quite wonderful – and quite unlike anything else she has written.

A "Piece of Passion" from the publisher...

‘I have a vivid memory of the first time I read the first page of Kate Atkinson’s first novel. It was nearly 10 years after I’d left York and in a page I was back there, in the streets around the Minster – transported by the voice of an unborn child to a world that was familiar but warped. Never mind its unusual developmental stage, the voice was immediately distinct, a little mad, a little caustic, and yet brilliantly true and completely hilarious. It was delicious. Behind the Scenes at the Museum is in a class of its own. The odd structure, tone, cast of characters all made it unique, exciting , a bit disturbing and utterly captivating. It made me laugh and it made me cry. I think it is a masterpiece.' Susanna Wadeson,  Publishing Director at Transworld

Sarah Broadhurst

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