From Powells.com
Scottish author A.
L. Kennedy's fiction is linguistically nimble, psychologically astute, and
very often breathtaking. Her three collections of short stories and her four novels,
including the remarkable Original
Bliss, have earned her not only extraordinary praise by critics, but many
awards for writing, including the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award, and
the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year. Yet, in this country she is sadly not as
recognized as she should be.
Everything You Need, her third novel, is a dazzling achievement. Nineteen-year-old
Mary Lamb is offered a residency at the Fellowship, an enigmatic and somewhat
bizarre writers' colony on the bleak Welsh island of Foal. She is unaware that
her secret benefactor for this retreat is the commercially successful writer
of thrillers, Nathan Staples. Staples is also her father, although Mary has
always believed that her father was dead. She was raised by her uncle and his
partner in a happy and creative environment, and is now an aspiring novelist.
But, after a pathetic suicide attempt, Staples decides the proper course is
to rekindle his bond with his daughter Mary. His first step is to join her at
the writers' residency. However, as A. L. Kennedy is so skillful at portraying,
the path to intimacy is a minefield, fraught with misread intentions. As wonderful
as Kennedy is at sharp satire particularly here, when she hilariously
portrays the London publishing scene and as verbally acrobatic as her
writing may be, Kennedy sets herself apart from most of her peers by her understanding
of human frailty and her tenderness for all her characters. Everything You
Need confirms that Kennedy is one of the great novelists at work today.
Georgie, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From the prodigiously talented A. L. Kennedy comes a flamboyantly stylish and fiercely emotional novel about fathers and daughters, creation and self-destruction, and love's paradoxical power to heal its most devastated victims. One such victim is Nathan Staples, a writer whose hilarious contempt for humanity is surpassed only by his corrosive self-loathing. Along with five equally dysfunctional colleagues Nathan lives on an island retreat off the coast of Wales, where he yearns for the daughter he lost years before. Now, in defiance of all his hopes, Mary Lamb herself an aspiring writer is about to join him as the seventh member of the colony.
As Nathan tortuously wins the trust of the child who has no inkling of their true relationship, Mary comes to a gradual understanding of her gift. In Everything You Need, A. L. Kennedy combines the mythic resonance of Arthurian legend with a sensibility as lyrical as it is profane.
Review
"Kennedy is richly, boldly imaginative....Kennedy's complex, prickly, and uncompromising quest for an understanding of the life of the spirit draws her into dark waters, but she keeps a tenacious hold on warmer truths, too." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The life of the writer is subjected to intensive and scathing analysis in this highly interesting (if more than a little overextended) third novel....Not Kennedy's shapeliest or subtlest book, but probably her best yet." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Life on the island is punctuated by occasional trips to a bizarre London literary scene. The question whether Nathan will tell is basically the only conflict in the tale, but it is strong enough to hold this engaging and sustaining novel together." Danise Hoover, Booklist
Review
"Gorgeous and visceral...profound, tender....[Kennedys] most accomplished work to date." The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Kennedy is as disconcertingly accurate at tenderness as at wildness....A passionate writer, on the edge and at risk." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A virtuoso of prose. Her phrasing is fine-tuned and supple to the highest degree: intuitive and subtle about the multifarious sensations of being alive." London Review of Books
Review
"This woman is a profound writer. If you are at all interested in contemporary fiction, this is work you must not miss." Richard Ford, author of Independence Day
Review
"A writer rich in the humanity and warmth that seem at a premium in these bleak times." Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses
About the Author
A. L. Kennedy has received many prizes for her work, including the Somerset Maugham Award, the Encore Award, and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. She lives in Glasgow.