HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Everlasting Lane: A Novel by Andrew Lovett
Loading...

Everlasting Lane: A Novel (edition 2015)

by Andrew Lovett

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
241943,491 (3.83)3
"A captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood In a timeless coming-of-age tale as charming and haunting as the movie Stand By Me, Andrew Lovett's Everlasting Lane tells the story of what happens when nine-year-old Peter's father dies and his mother moves them from the city to a house in the countryside, for what seem to Peter to be mysterious reasons. He's soon distracted, though, by the difficulties of being the new, shy kid at school, and he befriends the other two kids who seem to be outcasts: overweight Tommie and too-smart-for-her-own-good Anna-Marie. Together they try to weather the storm of bullying teachers and fellow students, by escaping into explorations of the seemingly bucolic countryside. There, though, they find other outcasts from society such as cranky Mr. Merridew, who won't leave his cottage in the woods, and Scarecrow Man, who stands in the fields searching the skies. And meanwhile, Peter is disturbed by the growing awareness that his own mother may be some sort of outcast, too--and that she's hiding something from him in a locked room in the attic, a room she's expressly forbidden him from entering. Written in beautiful prose, Everlasting Lane is a captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood: sun-soaked, nostalgic, with the soft focus and warm glow of a Polaroid--but it's darker than it seems. Will Peter and his mother find the light in that darkness?"--… (more)
Member:DowntownLibrarian
Title:Everlasting Lane: A Novel
Authors:Andrew Lovett
Info:Melville House (2015), Hardcover, 368 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

Everlasting Lane: A Novel by Andrew Lovett

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 3 mentions

Brilliant, just brilliant. One of the most enjoyable books I've read for a long time. Everlasting Lane evokes both the confusion of childhood, and the time and place of its setting (an English village in the 1970s) to a tee. The story concerns Peter (10, he thinks) moving to the village with his mother and confronting both his new life and his past. But it is not so much about the plot and revelation the mystery as the atmosphere and feelings going on inside Peter's head that make this an outstanding book. Peter's grip on reality is fairly loose and told from his perspective, and confused by the expectations of the adult world, we can't always be sure what happened, and what narratives he has made either to piece together some sense of the world or protect himself from its scarier aspects (not that things get much easier in adulthood of course).

The time and place will probably mean more to UK readers (and I wonder if this is what some of the lower ratings on Goodreads are missing). Here you'll find Tizer, Basil Brush, insults like "bog off!" and a whole panoply of recognisably eccentric villagers and teachers. All set against one of the everlasting summers of childhood where kids roamed free and only needed to be back by teatime.

I've been working my way back through Galley Beggar's books this summer, and this is the fourth I've read, and I haven't been disappointed yet. It is a mix of young innocence shot through with a dark undercurrent -- to quote the book "Like the moon: half sunlight, half midnight. All moon". With no easy answers, like life itself. ( )
  rrmmff2000 | Jul 23, 2016 |
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

"A captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood In a timeless coming-of-age tale as charming and haunting as the movie Stand By Me, Andrew Lovett's Everlasting Lane tells the story of what happens when nine-year-old Peter's father dies and his mother moves them from the city to a house in the countryside, for what seem to Peter to be mysterious reasons. He's soon distracted, though, by the difficulties of being the new, shy kid at school, and he befriends the other two kids who seem to be outcasts: overweight Tommie and too-smart-for-her-own-good Anna-Marie. Together they try to weather the storm of bullying teachers and fellow students, by escaping into explorations of the seemingly bucolic countryside. There, though, they find other outcasts from society such as cranky Mr. Merridew, who won't leave his cottage in the woods, and Scarecrow Man, who stands in the fields searching the skies. And meanwhile, Peter is disturbed by the growing awareness that his own mother may be some sort of outcast, too--and that she's hiding something from him in a locked room in the attic, a room she's expressly forbidden him from entering. Written in beautiful prose, Everlasting Lane is a captivating, absorbing, and suspenseful evocation of the spells of childhood: sun-soaked, nostalgic, with the soft focus and warm glow of a Polaroid--but it's darker than it seems. Will Peter and his mother find the light in that darkness?"--

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.83)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3 1
3.5 2
4 2
4.5
5 1

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,188,976 books! | Top bar: Always visible