Dr Ruth Weiss, a celebrated authority on Balzac is now forty, and looks back on her London childhood, her friendships and doomed Parisian love affairs to tell the story of a life impassioned by literature, and she realises that once again she must make a start in life.
I do so love Anita Brookner novels, I always rather like the characters, they are so human, fragile and flawed as well as beautifully written. This is one of Anita Brookner’s earliest novels, yet it is still highly accomplished. At forty Ruth Weiss an expert on Balzac thinks her life has been ruined by literature. As Ruth looks back on her life, her role as a daughter living with her peculiar parents and their funny housekeeper, her short time in Paris and a doomed love affair, she is in a sense preparing to start again.
As always Brookner’s sense of time and place is perfect, I love her world, and her beautiful writing. Hugely readable, intelligent and poignant.
heavenali 
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