Waiting on Wednesday: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine to highlight an upcoming release we can't wait to read. My pick this week is The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst. I was already eagerly awaiting its publication, but when the Booker longlist was announced last week, I became even more excited to get my hands on a copy. Here's how the publisher describes it:
The Stranger's Child"Alan Hollinghurst’s first novel in seven years is a magnificent, century-spanning saga about a love triangle that spawns a myth—and a family mystery—across generations.

In 1913, George Sawle brings charming, handsome Cecil Valance to his family’s modest home outside London for a summer weekend. George is enthralled by his Cambridge schoolmate, and soon his sixteen-year-old sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by both Cecil and the stories he tells about Corley Court, the country estate he is heir to. But what Cecil writes in Daphne’s autograph album will change their and their families’ lives forever: a poem that, after Cecil is killed in the Great War and his reputation burnished, will be recited by every schoolchild in England. Over time, a tragic love story is spun, even as other secrets lie buried—until, decades later, an ambitious biographer threatens to unearth them.

Rich with the author’s signature gifts—haunting sensuality, wicked humor, and exquisite lyricism—The Stranger’s Child is a tour de force: a masterly novel about the lingering power of desire, and about how the heart creates its own history."
 Doesn't it sound amazing? Knopf won't release it until October 11, 2011, but it is available for pre-order from Amazon in hardcover or for the Kindle.

Comments

  1. This one is on my wish list too Carrie; great pick.

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  2. Oh yes, you are right, this one does sound very interesting. Thanks for sharing a little bit about it with us!

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  3. Alan Hollinghurst! That does "ring a bell" with me. I believe I've read one of his earlier books, which I'll check out right away.

    This new one sounds very interesting. Thanks for mentioning it!

    Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)

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  4. Sounds marvelous -- a bit like Atonement.

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  5. This does sound good. I have his book The Line of Beauty on my bookshelf -- got it years ago and never read it. Your post reminded me of it, and has made me add it to my nightstand to be read shortly. Thanks!

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