Kate Atkinsonová

In a quiet corner of rural Devon, a six-year-old girl witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie, wise beyond her years, works as a nanny for a G.P. But her employer has disappeared with her baby, and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is a former acquaintance - Jackson Brodie - himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.

The fourth novel featuring Jackson Brodie from the No.1 bestselling author of When Will There Be Good News?, winner of Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year A day like any other for security chief Tracy Waterhouse, until she makes a purchase she hadnt bargained for. One moment of madness is all it takes for Tracys humdrum world to be turned upside down, the tedium of everyday life replaced by fear and danger at every turn. Witnesses to Tracys Faustian exchange in the Merrion Centre in Leeds are Tilly, an elderly actress teetering on the brink of her own disaster, and Jackson Brodie who has returned to his home county in search of someone elses roots. All three characters learn that the past is never history and that no good deed goes unpunished. Kate Atkinson dovetails and counterpoints her plots with Dickensian brilliance in a tale peopled with unlikely heroes and villains . Started Early, Took My Dog is freighted with wit, wisdom and a fierce moral intelligence. It confirms Kate Atkinsons position as one of the great writers of our time.

It is summer, it is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bys tander - until he becomes a suspect. With "Case Histories", Kate Atkinson showed how brilliantly she could explore the crime genre and make it her own. In "One Good Turn", she takes her masterful plotting one step further. Like a set of Russian dolls , each thread of the narrative reveals itself to be related to the last. Her Dickensian cast of characters are all looking for love or money and find it in surprising places. As ever with Atkinson what each one actually discovers is their true self. Unputdownable and triumphant, "One Good Turn" is a sharply intelligent read that is also percipient, funny, and totally satisfying.

Case Histories continues a winning streak for Kate Atkinson which began when her impressive novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum won the Whitbread First Novel Award. Since that book, Atkinson has gleaned a keen following of readers who are prepared to follow in the surprising directions the unpredictable author takes us on. And Atkinson--so far--hasnt let us down. The perfectly judged prose that distinguished Human Croquet is fully in evidence in Case Histories, and a new frisson here comes fr om the genre-stretching that Atkinson is indulging in. In some ways, this book could almost be seen as a new take on the crime novel (not the first genre one would expect the author to tackle), but the crime elements here Atkinson uses are peripheral . The protagonist here is a former police inspector who now makes a living as a private investigator. Jackson Brodie is making ends meet in a sweaty Cambridge summer and trying to deal with his own failed marriage. But if his life is adrift, perhaps Brodie can justify his existence via his belief that he can do some good for the people he encounters in his job. But he is to find that he will be irrevocably changed by those he is trying to help. As a vividly created cast of characters surround th e beleaguered Brodie, all the novelistic skills that shone in Atkinson's earlier books are fully in play. Those deluded into thinking they've picked up something resembling a standard private eye novel will find something much more rich and strange; Atkinson goes from strength to strength.--Barry Forshaw--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if there were second chances? And third chances? In fact an infinite number of chances to live your life? Would you eventually be able to save the world from its own inevitable destiny? And would you even want to? Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. With wit and compassion, Kate Atkinson finds warmth even in life's bleakest moments, and shows an extraordinary ability to evoke the past. Here she is at her most profound and inventive, in a novel that celebrates the best and worst of ourselves.

Čo ak by sme mali možnosť žiť svoj život znovu a znovu, až kým nebudeme spokojní? Počas snehovej fujavice v roku 1910 sa v Anglicku narodí dievčatko Ursula, ale zomiera, prv než sa stihne poriadne nadýchnuť. V rovnaký večer roku 1910 sa to isté dievča narodí opäť a tentoraz prežije, no smrť si ju zanedlho počká a cyklus sa zopakuje. Ursula prežíva svoj život nanovo, vždy o niečo dlhšie, vždy s iným tragickým koncom. Zakaždým sa ocitá na začiatku, obdarená šancou vyhnúť sa fatálnym chybám. Ursula si na predošlé životy nespomína, no silné déja vu, predtucha prichádzajúceho nešťastia sú varovaním pred nástrahami, ktoré sa jej kedysi stali osudné. Stačí zdanlivo bezvýznamný krok a všetko sa môže vyvinúť inak. Čím častejšie prežíva tie isté momenty nanovo, tým sú spomienky konkrétnejšie a šanca na dokonalý život väčšia. Dá sa však vyvarovať všetkých chýb? Dá sa zachrániť svet pred jeho nevyhnutným osudom?

Kate Atkinson's dazzling Life After Life, the bestselling adult book this year to date in the UK, explored the possibility of infinite chances, as Ursula Todd lived through the turbulent events of the last century again and again. In A God in Ruins, Atkinson turns her focus on Ursula's beloved younger brother Teddy - would-be poet, RAF bomber pilot, husband and father - as he navigates the perils and progress of the 20th century. For all Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge will be to face living in a future he never expected to have. A God in Ruins is a masterful companion to Life After Life, and will prove once again that Kate Atkinson is one of the finest novelists of our age.