On The Occasion Of My Last Afternoon

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781860496813

Price: £10.99

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‘Well constructed and provocative’ THE TIMES

‘A master storyteller . . . Margaret Mitchell’s blunderbuss epic’ SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

‘Gibbons writes with confidence and imagination’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Emma Garnet Tate Lowell, a plantation owner’s daughter, grows up in a privileged lifestyle in the mid-nineteenth century, but it’s not all roses. Her family’s prosperity is linked to the institution of slavery, and Clarice, a close and trusted family servant, exposes Emma to the truth and history of their plantation and how it brutally affected the slave population.

Her father, Samuel P. Tate, has an aggressive and overpowering persona that intimidates many people–including Emma. But she refuses to conform to his ideals and marries a prominent young doctor. Together they face the horrors of the Civil War, nursing wounded soldiers, as Emma begins the long journey toward her own recovery from the terrible forces that shaped her father’s life.

Reviews

Despite the comings and goings of literary fashion, not much of real importance has changed since Horace said that our stories should aim to instruct and delight. Beginning with Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons has achieved both on every page. And she does it again here, strikingly, in a novel abut the bright habits of mind required for survival - and the high price paid for living on
Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain
Gibbons writes with confidence and imagination about personalities and a time which she has made her own
Times Literary Supplement
Gibbons writes with confidence and imagination about personalities and a time which she has made her own.
TLS
Gibbons has wrought a balanced and highly accessible novel...well constructed and provocative
THE TIMES
Despite the comings and goings of literary fashion, not much of real importance has changed since Horace said that our stories should aim to instruct and delight. Beginning with ELLEN FOSTER, Kaye Gibbons has achieved both on every page. And she does it again here, strikingly, in a novel abut the bright habits of mind required for survival - and the high price paid for living on
Charles Frazier, author of COLD MOUNTAIN
Gibbons has wrought a balanced and highly accessible novel . . . well constructed and provocative
The Times
A fascinating story . . . Kaye Gibbons goes back to the days of the Civil War to depict the life of another extraordinary woman . . . A reader couldn't ask for better company than Emma
USA Today
If there is a writer worthy to nominated the literary heir of Eudora Welty, Gibbons is that writer
Irish Times
If there is a writer worthy to nominated the literary heir of Eudora Welty, Gibbons is that writer.
IRISH TIMES
A master storyteller . . . Margaret Mitchell's blunderbuss epic . . . can't hold a sweet-potato candle to these vivid pages
San Francisco Chronicle