Snow Country: SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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Sebastian Faulks: Snow Country is the second instalment of the author’s Austrian trilogy, which began with Human Traces in 2005. Photograph: David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images Lena who has a drunk as a mother and feels very much useless, until she meets Rudolph who made her very happy, but he left her.

Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks review – the collective

With SNOW COUNTRY, Sebastian Faulks reaffirms his place as one of the greatest novelists of our times. It is both learned and lyrical and confirms Mr Faulks’ role as the voice of the human heart. Snow Country by Sebastian Faulks is a deeply introspective novel set largely in Austria during the social and political upheaval of the first decades of the 20th century. It focuses on the lives and loves of Anton and Lena, both complex and sensitive characters with elaborately imagined thoughts, emotions, desires and mental health issues which are compassionately explored. Meanwhile, we also meet Lena who has not had a good start in live with an absent father and a drunk mother. She finds a sort of benefactor in a young lawyer Rudolf Plischke who tries to help her but it is on her own merit that she finally gets herself a job. Mark started the interview by asking Sebastian what drew him to writing this novel set in the early 20th century. ‘This book is set mainly between the two world wars in a very turbulent time. It's a period you've written about before. What draws you to this specific time, the 20s and the 30s?’ For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.Faulks appears regularly on British TV and radio. He was a regular team captain on BBC Radio 4's literary quiz The Write Stuff (1998–2014). [10] The quiz involves the panellists each week writing a pastiche of the work of a selected author; Faulks has published a collection of his efforts as a book, Pistache (2006), which was described in The Scotsman as "a little treasure of a book. Faulks can catch, and caricature, another writers' fingerprints and foibles with a delicious precision that only a deep love of writing can teach". [11] In 2011 Faulks presented a four-part BBC Two series called Faulks on Fiction, looking at the British novel and its characters. [12] He also wrote a series tie-in book of the same name. I had read two of Sebastian Faulks’ novels before this, Birdsong and Enderby, one of which I liked and one of which I did not. Snow Country, set mainly in Austria before, (briefly) during and after the First World War, falls into the former category. I liked it. I have read Sebastian Faulks’ other books over many years and this book is definitely as powerful as his others. This book follows the story started in Human Traces, published in 2005. I remember reading it on honeymoon in Thailand in 2006 and loving it. I wish the gap between reading these wasn’t as long, I can only remember the actual story vaguely (it was a long time ago!).

Sebastian Faulks - Wikipedia Sebastian Faulks - Wikipedia

Faulks married Veronica (née Youlten) in 1989. They have two sons, William and Arthur, born 1990 and 1996 respectively, and one daughter, Holly, born 1992. [1] Faulks is a fan of West Ham United football club. [13] Debrett's lists his recreations as tennis and wine. [10] Historical events and people – including the notorious killer Henriette Caillaux – are part of the crevasses Faulks explores in Snow Country, but the heart of the book is about the two love stories that dominate Anton’s life… To say any more would spoil the story. It’s enough to recommend this magnificent, moving novel, part of the joy of which for the reader is joining Anton and Lena on their intensely affecting journey to find a way to live with their tortured pasts. Although the book is full of sorrow, it also shows us how the power to love somebody for what they are – and all that they are – can bring solace during our short time “on this woebegotten earth”.The novel focuses on the effects of war, the political tensions in Austria and the rise of facism as well as the growth of psychoanalysis away from Freud’s theories to more compassionate and gentle treatments. Lena and Anton are both recipients of Martha’s wise counselling, freeing them to move on with their lives. It’s a literary novel with beautiful prose, particularly the description of the Schloss and it’s lake. I found the sections in the Schloss and the discussion of current psychotherapy interesting and very much liked Martha and her ideas. Overall, the novel is fairly slow moving, being mostly driven by the three main characters and their personal insecurities, loves and losses. While I enjoyed reading it, it didn’t affect me in the same way that Birdsong did, but maybe that’s too much to ask for. portrait of an Austrian society that is very much reminiscent of the sad and marvellous tales of Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth.