LighthousekeepingAn orphaned girl is held spellbound by the tales of a lighthouse keeper on the Scottish coast, in a novel by the Costa Award-winning author of The Passion. After her mother is literally swept away by the savage winds off the Atlantic coast of Salts, Scotland, never to be seen again, the orphaned Silver is feeling particularly unmoored. Taken in by the mysterious keeper of a lighthouse on Cape Wrath, Silver finds an anchor in Mr. Pew—blind, as old and legendary as a unicorn, and a yarn spinner of persuasive power. The tale he has to tell Silver is that of a nineteenth-century clergyman named Babel Dark, whose life was divided between a loving light and a mask of deceit. Peopled with such luminaries as Charles Darwin and Robert Louis Stevenson, Mr. Pew’s story within a story within a story soon unfolds like a map. It’s one that Silver must follow if she’s to be led through her own darkness, and to find her own meaning in life, in this novel by a winner of the Costa, Lambda, and E.M. Forster Awards, the author of Oranges are Not the Only Fruit; Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and other acclaimed works. “In her sea-soaked and hypnotic eighth novel, Winterson turns the tale of an orphaned young girl and a blind old man into a fable about love and the power of storytelling…Atmospheric and elusive, Winterson's high-modernist excursion is an inspired meditation on myth and language.”—The New Yorker |
Contents
KNOWN POINT IN THE DARKNESS | |
TENANT OF THE SUN | |
GREAT EXHIBITION | |
A PLACE BEFORE THE FLOOD | |
NEW PLANET | |
TALKING BIRD | |
SOME WOUNDS | |
THE HUT | |
Back Flap | |
Back Cover | |
Spine | |
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Common terms and phrases
asked Babel Dark baby began beginning bird blue boat boat body breathing Bristol called Cape Wrath Charles Darwin child cliff climbed cold Darwin Death in Venice Dogjim door dress duck edge everything eyes face father feel felt fingers fire fossil Full Strength Samson glass gone hands heard Holiday Inn Hyde inside Jekyll Josiah Dark kiss knew lighthouse Lighthousekeeping listening live looked married McCloud Miss Pinch Molly moon mother never night Northern Lighthouse Board opened Origin of Species pulled Railings Row Razorbill Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Stevenson Rock and Pit round sailing Salts seahorse ship Silver skin sleep someone Stevenson stood story talking Tavistock Clinic tell There's thing thought told took Tristan turned waiting walk wanted watched waves wife window woman wonder