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The Beacon [Import] [Paperback]

Susan Hill (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)


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Book Description

November 23, 2009
What happens to a family when one of the brothers publishes his “misery memoir?” Is his litany of childhood torment a complete invention? Or was there really a cupboard under the stairs?

The farmhouse was called The Beacon and they had been born and reared there, May, Colin, Frank and Berenice, but only May had been left for the last 27 years . . .

May had been the clever daughter and she had escaped the shelter of The Beacon, just once, to go to university. But in London she had been pursued by nameless terrors, the victim of fears and anxieties. Now she was the spinster daughter, the one who stayed, who nursed her father after his accident and looked after her mother in her old age.

Frank was the one who got away. He married and moved on. But why does no one ever mention Frank’s name?

Richly atmospheric, evoking mystery, ambiguity and suspense, The Beacon is a novella which continues to resonate beyond the final pages.


From the Hardcover edition.


Editorial Reviews

Review

Controlled, sparse and powerful writing Woman and Home Beautiful, clean prose...[an] absorbing story Literary Review An almost perfect little literary novel outside any genre...it possesses the light tug of menace and almost invisible haze of tension that characterise Hill's ghost stories...a novel of great structural and stylistic control Guardian Magnificent...It is all done so well, so wisely, that this short book is richly satisfying...it is a little masterpiece Daily Telegraph This enigmatic novella tracks the full impact of Frank's book, probing notions of guilt and truth, and deftly capturing those family bonds that warp even as they appear to nurture Daily Mail Captivating... There is, from the start, a highly charged atmosphere of anxiety and ambiguity...the suspense and mystery work perfectly, and for this Hill's economy is exactly what is needed Financial Times Compelling, cut through with sloe-sharp details as Hill exhibits complete mastery of the tools at her disposal... Like a ringmaster flicking her whip, Hill manipulates an awful, pathetic irony uncoloured by melodrama... Reader's familiar with Hill's novels will not be surprised by the long spell cast by this one. Nor will they be disappointed in this spare and understated book, whose richness and intensity belie its elegant economy of effect. It is a moving, evocative and rewarding novel The Times Short, beautifully crafted and gripping... Hill's astute and skilful probing of motives and the ambiguities of appearances extends the reach of the novel much wider Sunday Times A clever novel that's timeless in its tension-building storytelling Good Housekeeping A brilliantly eerie little tale...with a very adroitly handled contemporary theme: the misery memoir Scotland on Sunday

About the Author

Susan Hill’s novels and short stories have won the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham and John Llewelyn Rhys awards, and been shortlisted for the Booker. She is the author of the ghost stories The Woman in Black; The Mist in the Mirror; and The Man in the Picture, and of the series of crime novels featuring policeman Simon Serrailler.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Books (November 23, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099526956
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099526957
  • Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,891,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Quiet, mysterious and bleak, February 3, 2010
This review is from: The Beacon (Hardcover)
This novella had a quiet, mysterious and gothic feeling and it was certainly an easy read. However, by the end of the book I thought it was too much of a light touch and wasn't enough for a short book - instead it felt like a longer book with the intensity taken out. Maybe Hill wanted the bleakness to come through with the lack of things explained too? There are some thought provoking elements but for me there was not enough substance and the messages or themes that the author was trying to convey were not clear. The relationships between the characters are not described deeply enough and the ending feels too open to me. The ending was somewhat rushed and I'm sure the story could have gone on much further and in more detail.

Three stars for the quality of writing and the vivid feelings of bleakness and strained relationships but I felt frustrated at what was missing from this book.
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