The Stranding actually stole my heart and I haven’t loved Kate Sawyer’s writing as much since then. Until now! Absolutely nothing wrong with ‘This Family’ which is Kate’s second novel, but it wasn’t The Stranding and my heart just didn’t like that at all. But enough time has passed, perhaps… Enter, ‘Getting Away’ – Kate’s latest novel, fresh off the press and in a beautiful independent bookshop edition, signed with sprayed edges.
Getting Away spans a century of one family’s holidays, using those escapes to capture Britain’s social change. It’s a character-led book, easy to read and become immersed in, and there will be plenty to talk about too. It has nostalgia, in the snippets of this family life we are drawn to each period of time with the little things that were poignant back then. Telegrams, postcards, emails… the book draws us ever nearer to the present day but in a gentle, almost stealthy, way.
The characters aren’t perfect, and don’t we love that? Real people. Gritty people. People who behave badly. The good and the bad. Reality.
Kate Sawyer is one of those Authors who makes me want to write. I finish her books and feel energised to bring chapters together and characters to life. She is a writer you aspire to be. Getting Away is tender & wise, profound and original. And it has to be your next read.
About the Book
Margaret Smith is at the beach.
It is a summer day unlike any other Margaret has ever known.
The Smith family have left the town where they live and work and go to school and come to a place where the sky is blue, the sand is white, and the sound of the sea surrounds them. An ordinary family discovering the joy of getting away for the first time.
Over the course of the coming decades, they will be transformed through their holiday experiences, each new destination a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end — and secrets are revealed.
About The Author
Kate Sawyer worked as an actor and producer before writing several short films then turning her hand to fiction. Her second novel This Family was a Waterstones Book Of The Month and Paperback of the Year. Her debut, The Stranding, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the East Anglian Book Award for fiction, was adapted for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and is being developed for the screen. Kate produces the annual Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival, in the Suffolk town she grew up in and returned to after the birth of her daughter.
Purchase the Book
This book can be purchased in our store either on its own or in a cosy Book Box.
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