LoveReading Says
A ravishing riff on the real-life relationship between writer George Sand and composer Frédéric Chopin, Nell Stevens’ Briefly, A Delicious Life glows with Mediterranean heat, avant-garde verve, and a yearning that burns.
Set in 1838, and narrated by Blanca, the ghost of a witty, whip-smart fourteen-year-old girl who died in a Mallorca monastery in 1473, this character-driven charmer is suffused in beauty, and casts a captivating spell.
Frédéric Chopin, George Sand and her children have travelled to a monastery in Mallorca to convalesce and create. Sand is a striking woman in man’s clothes, whose arrival incites a stir on the island as it stirs Blanca’s heart and desires. As the unconventional couple struggle with the villagers’ judgements, and to find creative satisfaction, Blanca recounts her story, her experiences of falling for the beauty of women.
And now she’s in love with Sand, who doesn’t know she exists, and cannot reciprocate.
This wildly inventive scenario plays out ingeniously — though outlandish, through Blanca’s age-old wisdom and youthful spirit, and through the visual, sensual language, it feels real. We see and sense flurries of birds and leaves. We feel the prickle and heat of flesh and the sun. What a moving, magical, hauntingly memorable story.
Reviewed by Joanne OwenJoanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen About Briefly, a Delicious Life
*A Cosmopolitan Best Book of Summer * One of BuzzFeed's Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books*
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Briefly, a Delicious Life Synopsis
*A Cosmopolitan Best Book of Summer * One of BuzzFeed's Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books*
An "exquisite...too lovely to bear" (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel from an award-winning writer: a playful and daring tale about a teenage ghost who falls in love with the writer George Sand. In 1473, fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover Frederic Chopin arrive in the village, Blanca is still there: a spirited, funny, righteous ghost, she's been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants.
Blanca is enchanted the moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited longing--a teenage ghost pining for a woman who can't see her and doesn't know she exists. As George and Chopin, who wear their unconventionality, in George's case, literally on their sleeves, find themselves in deepening trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly and reflects on the circumstances of her own death (which involved an ill-advised love affair with a monk-in-training).
Charming, original, and emotionally moving, this "deeply wild debut follows the unconventional love triangle" (
Cosmopolitan) between George, Chopin, and Blanca--a gorgeous and surprising exploration of artistry, desire, and life after death.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781982190958 |
| Publication date: |
25th July 2023 |
| Author: |
Nell Stevens |
| Publisher: |
Scribner Book Company |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
320 pages |
| Primary Genre |
General Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Nell Stevens Press Reviews
A luscious, multi-sensory bewitchment of a book - Stevens' writing rings with wit and surprise -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies
I found myself floored by the astonishing freshness of this historical novel . . . A shining work of art, but so deftfully, gracefully done, that it was a struggle to stop myself from turning the pages. Nell Stevens is an original, whose touch is as deft as it is masterful -- Elizabeth Macneal, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory
Electrifyingly beautiful, exhilaratingly clever . . . categorically the most gorgeous first novel I've read in years. It's rare that I come across historical fiction so sensual, so original, so intelligent, and so brimming with love -- Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock
A haunting, dazzling tale of all the good stuff: love, sex, music, literature, death, and what happens after. Nell Stevens is a beautiful writer. -- Melissa Broder, author of The Pisces and Milk Fed
A novel of tremulous beauty, sly wit and deep understanding, Briefly, A Delicious Life is an addictive, sunlit delight -- Stuart Evers, author of The Blind Light
A gorgeous, wildly seductive novel, shimmering with intelligence, humour and joy. I adored this book. -- Sarah Waters, author of Fingersmith and The Paying Guests
A luminous, beguiling exploration of creativity and love -- Alice Albinia, author of CWEN
We know we are curious about the dead but imagine a life lived so vibrantly as to make the dead curious about us. Nell Stevens brings a reader into the strange and brilliant artistic exile of George Sand, writing this tender story with tremendous heart and daring. Here, reader, are the low-lying truths of love, art and time -- Samantha Hunt, author of The Dark Dark
This delightfully weird story of loss, longing and love just begs to fill a rainy afternoon. - Good Housekeeping (USA)
Stevens' prose is by turns languid and visceral . . . An entrancing and singular exploration of a fascinating historical footnote and a queer life after death. -- Kirkus (starred review)
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