The Dark Flood Rises - Hardcover

Shrewd and timely - the best novel I've read in ages. Ferociously well written, and hugely entertaining -- SARAH WATERS Masterly * * New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2017 * * An absolute tour de force -- LINDA GRANT * * Guardian, Best Books of the Year * * Erudite, beautifully written, funny, tragic * * Daily Mail * * Darkly witty and exhilarating * * The Times * * With its echoes of Simone de Beauvoir and Samuel Beckett, this quiet meditation an old age seethes with apocalyptic intent . . . Brilliant * * Guardian * * Masterly, poignant and uplifting * * Mail on Sunday * * Drabble has pulled off a quietly revolutionary portrait of an age-group whose lives are just as urgent as anyone's but are rarely considered ***** * * Sunday Telegraph * * Ageing and dying in style . . . Margaret Drabble's sharply drawn characters look back on lives lived and forwards to achieving a good death * * Observer * * Uplifting . . . Profound . . . Unforgettable . . . At its heart is the enormous question, how do we know if we've had a good life? * * Sunday Telegraph * * Now 77 and on her 19th novel, Drabble is skillful at creating brilliantly drawn, three-dimensional characters in this thought-provoking and witty read * * Sunday Post * * Written with tremendous energy . . . Drabble has always been an observant chronicler of human life. Meditations on what makes a good death . . . are enthusiastically explored in a text that roves fluidly between past and present. Inquisitive and erudite * * Literary Review * * A vein of black humour pulses . . . as entertaining as a conversation with a dear friend * * Daily Mail * * Heartbreaking and hilarious * * Sunday Independent * * Witty and intelligent . . . brimming with relevance * * Independent * * A heartfelt rumination on the process of ageing and inevitability of death * * The List * * A significant achievement, admirable and truthful * * New Statesman * * A thought-provoking, witty and surprisingly acerbic read * * The Herald * * Sharp observation and pessimistic pondering . . .There is a gloomy, undeniable truthfulness to this novel * * Daily Express * * Drabble's brilliance . . . builds up a sense of wide horizons that one has never seen in quite the same way before * * The Times * * Her distinctive narrative voice and soaring prose remain electrifying * * Spectator * *

NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017: 'masterly' GUARDIAN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 'An absolute tour de force' Fran may be old but she's not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives around the country for her job with a housing charity and lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. And as each of them - her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher and earnest daughter Poppet - seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Will they be waving or drowning when the end comes? By turns joyous and profound, darkly sardonic and moving, The Dark Flood Rises questions what makes a good life, and a good death. This triumphant, bravura novel takes in love, death, sun-drenched islands, poetry, Maria Callas, tidal waves, surprise endings - and new beginnings.