Coming Home [Hardcover]

Rosamunde Pilcher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

Judith Dunbar comes of age while confronting her feelings about love and sadness and journeying back to her childhood home. By the author of The Shell Seekers. 850,000 first printing. Lit Guild & Doubleday Main. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Massive in size and vast in scope, Pilcher's latest entertainment seems destined to equal the extraordinary success of her previous novels (September, etc.) as it follows young Judith Dunbar through the tumultuous years before and during WWII. At 14, Judith is sent to boarding school in Cornwall when her mother and sister leave England to rejoin her father in Ceylon and then Singapore. Facing bleak holidays with her widowed, golf-obsessed Aunt Louise, the girl is overjoyed and a bit overwhelmed when she's often invited by classmate Loveday Carey-Lewis and her glamorous and wealthy family to spend time at their estate. When Aunt Louise dies in an auto accident, Judith finds herself an unexpected heiress with the funds necessary to move easily through the world of the Carey-Lewises and their friends, such as young physician Jeremy Wells. As Europe moves toward war, Judith embarks on a disastrous affair with Loveday's rakish brother, while Loveday falls for Gus Callendar, a Cambridge-educated engineer who longs to be an artist. War finds Judith enlisting in the Wrens and dealing with both an unfinished romance with Jeremy and tragic news about the fate of her family in Singapore; meanwhile, Loveday works her family farms and makes a rash decision about her future with Gus. War's end will bring unexpected tensions as well as a suitably romantic fate for both women. This is classy, lavish entertainment from a writer whose unpretentious prose always flows smoothly, never offends and offers literate pleasure. 850,000 first printing; $800,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections; Readers Digest Condensed Book Club selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Pilcher's novel is big, both in size and scope. Yet its charm is in its details. The book's heroine is Judith Dunbar, who is a schoolgirl of 13 when the tale begins in 1935. Sent to boarding school in Cornwall because her parents are posted to Singapore, Judith becomes friends with Loveday Carey-Lewis, who introduces her to a family and an estate, Nancherrow, that is to influence her for the rest of her life. Pilcher does a marvelous job of describing life in England before World War II. Readers, especially Anglophiles, will adore the care Pilcher gives to setting her scenes, decorating them with everything from Cornish wildflowers to china dogs to particular tartan plaids. The same care is evident later in the tale, as Pilcher chronicles the changes brought by the war to the fabric of British life. There is, of course, more to the novel than a carefully rendered historical backdrop. There is a story, too, and a quite involving one even if its outlines are familiar from other melodramas set against the dramatic events of history. As Judith makes her way to adulthood in the midst of great wealth, great tragedy, and, naturally, romance, Pilcher effectively balances the demands of plot with the pleasures of revisiting a different place and time. Fans of the author's previous books, such as September (1990), will know what they're getting into and willingly plunge in headfirst. A Literary Guild main selection and an 850,000 first printing indicate supreme confidence on the publisher's part. Ilene Cooper

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 728 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312134517
• ISBN-13: 978-0312134518
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly classic reading!, March 11, 2005

By 

Busy Mom (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Coming Home (Mass Market Paperback)

I couldn't decide what books to read when I have my surgery ~~ and I was browsing through my shelves when I saw this. I remember loving "Shell Seekers" and "September" ~~ so I thought, who can write better than Pilcher when you're groggy and tired? I took the book, read the first fifty pages and was hooked on it from the beginning ~~ Pilcher is a classic storyteller. And her descriptions of Cornwall is absolutely stunning. This book literally beckons you to sit and have a cup of tea, cozy up on the couch and with the radio playing softly in the background ~~ and this book will take you away.

This book focuses on Judith Dunbar over a period of years ~~ before the WWII started and shortly after it ended. She was fourteen when her mother and younger sister went back to Columbo to rejoin their father, before his move to Singapore. Judith was sent to live at a boarding school where she struck up a life-long friendship with Loveday Carey-Lewis, a genteel young girl who loved horses and her home at Nancherrow. Judith becomes immersed in the Carey-Lewis family as well as with her aunts and uncle ~~ and falling in love ... Their stories swept over the years with trimuphs, tragedies amidst the backdrop of the war ~~ love, sorrow and joy. Dreams discovered and shattered ~~ it is a story of a time that has never been lived since then. It is about Cornwall and WWII.

This is a beautifully written novel ~~ poetic and descriptive and lovely. It is also a romantic novel ~~ not a romance novel ~~ just incredibly romantic where it does gloss over the horrids of the war but realistic enough to pierce the heart over the terrors that some of the people had faced. It is also a lush novel ~~ full of thoughts and dreams and letters written in the old-fashioned way ~~ telling stories of lives bygone. It is just an incredible novel ~~ one that I am pleased to have in my possession. Pilcher is one of the few writers in my library that I collect ~~ her writing always beckon you home. This novel is just one of those that you just have to read to know what I am trying to say here.

3-11-05

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-Warming Read By Rosamunde Pilcher, May 14, 2005

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coming Home (Mass Market Paperback)

If you are a fan of family sagas, love cozy and comforting reads, admire protagonists who endure hardship and survive, then you will love this monumental work by Rosamunde Pilcher.

Set in the days preceeding, during, and after World War II in Cornwall, London, and other other spots, the reader is introduced to Judith Dunbar at age 14. She is left at a girls' school in England while her mother and younger sister Jess go to join Judith's father in Singapore. The separation stretches on for years, and Judith grows through her teen years with the help of new-found friends, the affluent Carey-Lewises, but mostly survives due to her own indomitable spirit.

There is so much to say about a book that goes on for nearly 1,000 pages, but for me the plot was secondary to the endearing characters who populate this book. From Judith to her bestfriend, Loveday Carey-Lewis, the inspiriing Diana, the haunting Gus, the stable Jeremy and the host of minor characters who come to life, this is a riveting read that takes you through the trauma of war and its effects on ordinary people living their lives as best they can. The book is filled with many happy moments and perhaps even more heart-breaking ones, but always there is hope and strong survival skills working to make things right in the end.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Weekend Need-A-Book Reading, March 17, 2000

By 

Sharon "azriona" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming Home (Mass Market Paperback)

There are some books that I know so well, I can pick them up and just start anywhere, anytime, and be whisked away without moving a step. Coming Home is just that.

We meet Judith Dunbar, a 14 year old girl in 1935, as her mother and baby sister are preparing to leave her in an English boarding school and join her father in Singapore. For the next ten years, we follow Judith and her new-found family through love, death, and the outbreak of a war that will tear Judith's loyalties in two.

Rosamunde Pilcher's worlds, as always, are filled with people who you would love to meet and consider friends. The families she writes about -- even the disfunctional ones -- are families you wish you could be a part of, just so that when you finally finish the last chapter, you don't have to leave them forever. (Or, you can just start the book again ... )