Cover of In the falling snow
Read Time: ~7.1 hr

In the falling snow

by Caryl Phillips (2010)

About this book

From one of our most admired fiction writers: the searing story of breakdown and recovery in the life of one man and of a society moving from one idea of itself to another.Keith--born in England in the early 1960s to immigrant West Indian parents but primarily raised by his white stepmother--is a social worker heading a Race Equality unit in London whose life has come undone. He is separated from his wife of twenty years (whose family "let her go" when she married a black man), kept at arm's length by his seventeen-year-old son, estranged from his father, and accused of harassment by a co-worker. And beneath it all, he has a desperate feeling that his work--even in fact his life--is no longer relevant.Moving deftly between past and present, the narrative uncovers the particulars of class, background, temperament, and desire that have brought Keith to this moment, and reveals how, often unwittingly, his wife, his son, and, ultimately, his father help him grasp the breadth of the changes that have occurred around him--and what these changes will require of him.At once intimate and expansive, deeply moving in its portrayal of the vagaries of familial love and bold in its scrutiny of the personal and societal politics of race, this is Caryl Phillips's most powerful novel yet.From the Hardcover edition.

Setting / LocationLondon & UK
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreIn the falling snow Lead Character

Readers who enjoyed this also loved

Cover of Second Honeymoon

Second Honeymoon

Joanna Trollope

Ben Boyd is leaving home. At twenty-two, he's the youngest of the family and the last to leave. His father Russell, a theatrical agent, is hoping to get his wife back after decades of family life. But, his mother Edie, an actress, is distraught. Now that her third and last child has left the nest, her life turns suddenly and uncomfortably silent. She begins to yearn for the maternal intimacy that now seems lost to her forever. Be careful what you wish for... Living on your own, it seems, may not be as glamorous as it's cracked up to be. Ben's brother, Matthew, is wrestling with a relationship in which he earns less than his successful girlfriend. Their sister Rosa is wrestling with debt, and the end of a turbulent love affair. Rosa is the first of the Boyd children to think she may have to move back in with her parents—just until she can make ends meet again. Before long, a mother-and-child reunion is in full swing: life away from the nest has proven to be unexpectedly daunting to the children, who one-by-one return home, bringing their troubles. With an unannounced new phase of parenthood suddenly stretching ahead of her, Edie finds her home more crowded than ever.

Cover of Flambards in Summer

Flambards in Summer

K.M. Peyton

Christina returns to Flambards in 1916, only to find the estate overgrown, deserted, and desolate. With the First World War still raging and most of the men she knows absent, Christina decides to use her inheritance to return the manor to its former glory. But when her plans are well underway, a familiar face appears at her door, throwing everything into confusion. 3rd book in the Flambards series. (Some consider this the last book of a trilogy, omitting the 4th book, which was added some years later.)

Cover of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with Earnshaw's adopted son, Heathcliff. The novel was influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction.

Cover of Skellig

Skellig

David Almond

Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. . . . What is this thing beneath the spiders' webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never before seen? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend, Mina. Together, they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever...

In the falling snow by Caryl Phillips | Literally Just Books