Charlotte Gray: A Novel - Hardcover

On the face of it, these are the ingredients of a historical potboiler. But Faulks is such a gifted storyteller that we seldom notice the threadbare nature of the raw material. Instead, all but the most churlish reader will be drawn into Charlotte's tribulations, which are not merely geopolitical but amorous: "The last thing she needed was some uncontrolled romance. She wanted to be helpful, she wanted to lead a serious life, not to lie sobbing in her bed for a disembodied yearning. Still less did she wish to see it embodied, with the complication and the fear that all that would entail." (Note: Charlotte is that rare thing, a virginal heroine, at least until page 61.) What's more, the author's evocation of Occupied France is a triumph of grimy, monochromatic realism. Here the small triumphs of Charlotte and her circle are expertly offset by the larger tragedies of what we've come to call, with only middling accuracy, the Good War. --William Davies

"It would take a mile-long essay to do justice to the many virtues of Sebastian Faulks's wonderful new novel. This riveting account of a young Scotswoman's odyssey through wartime London, and on into a perilous secret mission in Vichy France, deserves the highest praise. . . . Proustian cogitations, masterful narrative, and zestful pen portraits. A beautiful, near-masterpiece."--The Independent on Sunday

"One of the most impressive novelists of his generation . . . who is growing in authority with every book."
--Sunday Telegraph

"A worthy successor to Birdsong. It is hard to imagine anyone who enjoyed the last novel not finding great interest and pleasure in this one. In Charlotte, Faulks has created a wonderfully complex and engaging heroine, with whom it is hard not to fall a little in love."--Daily Express

"Faulks has the rare gift of being popular and literary at the same time. Its page-turning quality in no way undermines the darkness that it describes."--Literary Review

"Faulks is beyond doubt a master."--Financial Times

Praise for Birdsong:

"Overpowering and beautiful . . . A great novel."--Simon Schama, The New Yorker

"The ordinary superlatives do not suffice in this case. Birdsong moved me more profoundly than anything I've read in years. A deeply compassionate, utterly thrilling work by a master of the form."--Frank Conroy

"Worthy in every way of its honors and success . . . so powerful as to be almost unbearable."--George Garrett, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A contemporary novel that . . . earns a place on the shelf with true literature. . . . Superb storytelling and craftsmanship."--People