The Whole Wide Beauty: A Novel - Hardcover

"Woof elegantly dissects the transactions of desire, individual and familial, in this disquieting novel." -- Nikita Lalwani, author of Gifted "In The Whole Wide Beauty, Emily Woof untangles the threads of passion and loyalty, love and art that tie us together. What she gives us is a powerful novel that leaves us hopeful and inspired about our own lives." -- Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle "I loved Emily Woof's novel. It stayed with me like a jewel while I was reading it, in the way the best books do. It's such a passionate and devastating look at love and loneliness." -- Esther Freud, author of Love Falls and Hideous Kinky "[A] stirring debut...Though Woof's English characters outwardly maintain the stiffest of upper lips, their tumultuous inner worlds make for a sensuous, moving drama of love and family." "This is an admirable, intense first novel, serious and insightful ... I am excited to see what Woof will go on to write next." -- Adam Foulds "Demonstrates a well-tuned sensitivity to the complications of human existence." -- Mary Fitzgerald "An immensely readable novel ... marks her as a debut novelist of the first order." -- Adam O'Riordan

David Freeman, the charismatic and renowned director of the Broughton Poetry Foundation, has always been more interested in his work than family, and his daughter Katherine feels the wound of his neglect. David s intense passion for his work masks a complicated inner world, and his already fraught relationship with Katherine is further threatened when she falls in love with his protege, the poet Stephen Jericho. Years earlier, Katharine abandoned her career as a dancer, and she is muffled by motherhood and a conventional marriage; with the affair, she senses freedom. As she falls in love and her marriage starts to come apart, she begins to question the depth of the romance. Her emotional journey leads her back to the north of England where she was brought up, to her father, and to her younger self, the passionate dancer. Powerful, wise, and beautifully written, The Whole Wide Beauty is an unforgettable debut novel about searching for fulfillment in love, art, and life."