National Bestseller Winner of the Whitbread Book of the YearKate Atkinson’s dazzling debut novel is a deeply moving story of family heartbreak and happiness.Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
By kateatkinson
Kate Atkinson’s writing is one of a kind.
(BookBub has been recommended to me for so long, so, I’m finally getting started on it!!!) Anyway, my local book club – we alternate between classics, prizewinners and lighter books – is doing this book and I HAD to recommend it. It’s not new – won the Costa Award a few years back – but Atkinson is such an elliptically gifted writer, and I really …
What a wonderful book. A family, a narrator, shaped by events that are never discussed, although they are the reason for everything. Full of evolving compassion and discovery.
Kate Atkinson is hands down one of my favorite writers of all time. This was her debut novel and I thought it was just extraordinary.
Love this author!
So hard to believe that Behind the Scenes…, a Whitbread Book of the Year (1995), is a debut novel. It’s scope, the consistent quality of the writing seem so established and mature, that of a writer on top of her game, which she is, and stays there in subsequent works. There is, among fiction writers, a debate between “plotters” (those who …
Her books are always a little more complex than the next guy. Her stories evolve and involve you. Never read one of her books that I didn’t love.
I hadn’t read this 1st book of Atkinson’s, although I’ve read many of her other wonderful books. I couldn’t believe this was her first, it’s so wonderful and creative. She creates the most amazing characters and stories. Love, love, love this book.
An inventive, heartbreaking, funny story that winds through World War I, touches WWII, and lands in England in the 60s.
A very interesting book with a central character, Ruby Lennox, who is delightful, endearing and very realistic. The format of the book is slightly confusing at first, jumping from era to era, not sequentially, but I soon got used to it. The book was well written with interesting vocabulary and sentence structure. Very well edited!