{"title":"Books by Amanda Craig","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781408714683","title":"The Three Graces","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A brilliant piece of storytelling that revels in the world of expat old ladies in Tuscany, and should be the book that everybody's reading this summer' Andrew O'Hagan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'In the Tuscan hilltop village of Santorno, the setting for Amanda Craig's entertaining and bracing new novel, the Three Graces of her title are preparing for a spring wedding. Adorning this idyll Craig's Graces - Ruth, Marta and Diana - are a trio of elderly expatriates with a total of \"four breasts, five eyes and three hip replacements\" between them... witty, sharp-eyed and ridiculously enjoyable' Christobel Kent, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Enzo, a local villager, shoots an illegal immigrant from his bedroom window one night it triggers a series of events that embroil old and young, rich and poor, native and foreign. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Enjoyable and provocative... romantic and realistic' \u003c\/b\u003eEmily Rhodes, \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I absolutely LOVED \u003ci\u003eThe Three Graces\u003c\/i\u003e. It's about Tuscany and Umbria and Italy and immigration and ageing and generational divides and art and beauty and music and suffering and love and joy and life. It's bursting with compassion and wisdom' \u003c\/b\u003eChristina Patterson\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685871395189,"sku":"9780349144917","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":43128721408178,"sku":"9781408714683","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349144917.jpg?v=1792599092"},{"product_id":"9780349142685","title":"The Lie of the Land","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A very good read indeed' \u003c\/b\u003eMATT HAIG\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Terrific, page-turning, slyly funny' \u003c\/b\u003eINDIA KNIGHT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'As satisfying a novel as I have read in years' \u003c\/b\u003eSARAH PERRY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the most brilliant and entertaining novelists' \u003c\/b\u003eALISON LURIE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQuentin and Lottie Bredin, like many modern couples, can't afford to divorce. Having lost their jobs in the recession, they can't afford to go on living in London; instead, they must downsize and move their three children to a house in a remote part of Devon. Arrogant and adulterous, Quentin can't understand why Lottie is so angry; devastated and humiliated, Lottie feels herself to have been intolerably wounded.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMud, mice and quarrels are one thing - but why is their rent so low? What is the mystery surrounding their unappealing new home? The beauty of the landscape is ravishing, yet it conceals a dark side involving poverty, revenge, abuse and violence which will rise up to threaten them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSally Verity, happily married but unhappily childless knows a different side to country life, as both a Health Visitor and a sheep farmer's wife; and when Lottie's innocent teenage son Xan gets a zero-hours contract at a local pie factory, he sees yet another.  At the end of their year, the lives of all will be changed for ever. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA suspenseful black comedy, this is a rich, compassionate and enthralling novel in its depiction of the English countryside, and the potentially lethal interplay between money and marriage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN, OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEVENING STANDARD\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003eIRISH TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286140498293,"sku":"9780349142685","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349142685_8c6b2752-ee3c-4679-acb7-4caa195d4300.jpg?v=1786013471"},{"product_id":"9780349115870","title":"Hearts And Minds","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A novel written with passion and moral outrage' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Sympathetic, thought-provoking and often deeply moving' \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'You can't put this down' \u003ci\u003eIndependent \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRich or poor, five people, seemingly very different, find their lives in the capital connected in undreamed-of ways. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJob, the illegal mini-cab driver whose wife in Zimbabwe no longer answers his letters; Ian, the idealistic supply teacher in exile from South Africa; Katie from New York, jilted and miserable as a dogsbody at a political magazine, and fifteen-year-old Anna, trafficked into sexual slavery. Polly Noble, an overworked human rights lawyer, knows better than most how easy it is to fall through the cracks into the abyss. Yet when her au pair, Iryna, disappears, Polly's own needs and beliefs drag her family into a world of danger, deceit and terror.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRiveting, humane, engaging, \u003ci\u003eHearts and Minds\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel that is both entertaining and prepared to ask the most serious questions about the way we live.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286160683381,"sku":"9780349115870","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349115870_50355215-84b8-4d91-98bb-441c8f801704.jpg?v=1786013818"},{"product_id":"9780349139548","title":"A Private Place","description":"Knotshead is a school catering for the children of the rich, famous, liberal - and deluded. 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When Alice, the Headmaster's intellectual step-daughter, and the much-expelled American millionaire Winthrop T Sheen join forces against the school bully, Grub Viner,  a gifted pianist  and school \"joker\", has to choose between love and loyalty, and black comedy escalates to murder.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286240768373,"sku":"9780349139548","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349139548_1e7b8374-46ad-45ef-8b66-c18d37b1d7d5.jpg?v=1786013372"},{"product_id":"9780349143484","title":"The Golden Rule","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A highly enjoyable story about female resilience... with a twist that is all the more compelling for its unexpectedness' \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'She's such a skilful storyteller, who vividly dramatizes our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion' Bernardine Evaristo\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Amanda Craig anatomises the state of the nation with wit and empathy' Jonathan Coe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An irresistible summer read' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eA typically sharp and hugely satisfying page-turner' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Hannah is invited into the first-class carriage of the London to Penzance train, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, she once escaped Cornwall to go to university, but after marriage to Jake her dreams turned to bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for a rich woman, and Hannah has survived by working as a cleaner. Jinni is equally angry, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possibly connect them?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut when Hannah goes to Jinni's house she meets its shambolic caretaker, who claims Jinni is very different to the person Hannah had been led to believe. Who is telling the truth - and what will become of the women's pact to commit a terrible crime?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286479253877,"sku":"9780349143484","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349143484_de0943c3-1d6b-4139-b20d-92f2ef458be6.jpg?v=1786013506"},{"product_id":"9780349145044","title":"Foreign Bodies","description":"\u003cp\u003eAt eighteen, Emma Kenward runs away from her dull Sloane home to try her luck as a painter in Tuscany. 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Emma, ever curious, delves deep and discovers the truth about her new world, her old self - and a gruesome murder.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286673994101,"sku":"9780349145044","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349145044_dd53ded9-b885-4fa5-9567-b6410fb6193f.jpg?v=1786013595"},{"product_id":"9780349145211","title":"In a Dark Wood","description":"\u003cp\u003eThirty-nine, divorced, jobless: Benedick Hunter is going nowhere, heading in the exact opposite direction he expected. So when he comes across a children's book that his mother, Laura, wrote, he decides that her life and work - haunting stories replete with sinister woods, wicked witches and brave girls who battle giants - hold the key to finding out why his own life is such a mess.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSetting out to discover why Laura killed herself when he was six, Benedick travels to the US. As he grows more obsessed with what happened to his mother, Benedick enters into a dark wood - one that is both hilariously real and terrifyingly psychological. Dark humorous and inventive, \u003ci\u003eIn a Dark Wood \u003c\/i\u003ecasts light on the nature of depression, genius and of the healing power of storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56287026413941,"sku":"9780349145211","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349145211_57340e85-46bc-45d9-af2f-dcc50e940035.jpg?v=1786013608"},{"product_id":"9781911427254","title":"Same Same but Different Short Stories","description":"'A daring collection written in response to lockdown' Alison MacLeod 'A collection that reminds us what it is to be human. 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A gang is hunting for a child who has been drawn into crime with tragic results; there is a riot outside the church where asylum seekers have been sleeping, and many cities have descended into fierce protests.   Inside the Literary Cafe, a group of writers, bakers and shopkeepers are sheltering. Their petty feuds and past quarrels must be forgotten if they are to survive a gang armed with knives and a gun.   Over a few hours, the divisions between high and low, old and new, haves and have-nots are thrown into violent contrast. Are they going to try to save themselves, or each other?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePRAISE FOR HIGH AND LOW . . .  'Craig anatomises the state of the nation with wit and empathy' Jonathan Coe'The most mischievous take imaginable on the way we live now' Francis Spufford'Sharp and funny, clear-eyed and unsentimental' Clare Chambers'She's such a skillful storyteller who vividly dramatises our lives with wit, wisdom and compassion' Bernardine Evaristo'Mob violence and community spirit battle it out in this satirical state-of-the-nation novel from sharp-eyed, empathetic Craig' Mail on Sunday'Writing a state-of-the-nation novel that is also tense and funny is no mean feat, but that's what Amanda Craig seems to have accomplished in High and Low... Ambitious and far-reaching' Spectator'A snapshot of a society reeling from insecurity and division... The storytelling is deft throughout High and Low, and there are several cases of fine creative sympathy' New Statesman\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682715672949,"sku":"9781408714706","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":56367980052853,"sku":"9780349144924","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781408714706_56e5d74b-1804-4be8-8e83-ab323fb29021.jpg?v=1792511668"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-amanda-craig.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}