The Transit of Venus
SHIRLEY HAZZARD
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The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
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34 reviews (1980) (352p)
National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Winner
National Book Award Finalist
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist
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Book Description |
The Transit of Venus is considered Shirley Hazzard's most brilliant novel. It tells the story of two orphan sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, as they leave Australia to start a new life in post-war England. What happens to these young women--seduction and abandonment, marriage and widowhood, love and betrayal--becomes as moving and wonderful and yet as predestined as the transits of the planets themselves. Gorgeously written and intricately constructed, Hazzard's novel is a story of place: Sydney, London, New York, Stockholm; of time: from the fifties to the eighties; and above all, of women and men in their passage through the displacements and absurdities of modern life.
"Engrossing, masterly. . . . Combines the satisfaction of a family saga . . . with a highly structured plot reminiscent of Greek tragedy."-- Gail Godwin, The New York Times Book Review
"A wonderfully mysterious book. . . . Both plot and characters are many layered. Unforgettably rich."-- Anne Tyler, The New Republic
"Luminous. . . . Almost without flaw. Aphoristic and iridescent, her language turns paragraphs into events."-- Webster Schott, The Washington Post Book World |
Other Award Winning Books by Shirley Hazzard |
Shirley Hazzard Award Stats |
*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award
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