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LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013
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''Perkins is an extraordinary writer ... The Forrests is a novel to be savoured'' - Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times
''Dexterously communicates some of life''s less-syncopated rhythms ... Funny, painful and utterly mesmerising'' - Independent on Sunday
''The novel I would most like to press into my friends'' suitcases this summer ... kept me up reading late into the night'' - Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph
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Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of Auckland, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune.
Through the wilderness of a commune, to falling in love, to early marriage and motherhood, from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return of love, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes; revelations come to light; death changes everything, but somehow life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in just being won''t let her go.
In a narrative that shifts and moves, growing as wild as the characters, The Forrests is an extraordinary literary achievement. A novel that sings with colour and memory, it speaks of family and time, dysfunction, ageing and loneliness, about heat, youth, and how life can change if ''you''re lucky enough to be around for it''.
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''Literary fiction at its most luscious'' - Mail on Sunday
''An ambitious family saga flooded with light and life'' - Julie Myerson, New Statesman Books of the Year
''Exhilarating: intensely attentive, funny, lyrical and moving'' - Kate Summerscale, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year
''Remarkable'' - Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
''Extraordinary ... a magnificent novel'' - Arifa Akba, Independent
''An intelligent and perceptive novel'' - Allan Massie, Scotsman
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