God on the Rocks — Jane Gardam

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: “So charming a novel that you don't want to give away a single one of the many twists of its plot” (The New York Times).

Originally published in Great Britain in 1978, the novel describes Margaret Marsh's coming of age one summer between the world wars. Caught in the backwash of a fervently religious father, a mother bitterly nostalgic for what might have been, the tea and sympathy of some thoroughly secular neighbors and the bawdy jokes of her nanny Lydia, Margaret's world hurtles toward a shattering moment of truth. Drama, tragedy, and a touch of farce lend themselves to Gardam's typically eloquent prose. With subtlety and precision, God on the Rocks provides an intimate portrait of the tensions that divide men and women, present and past, and the love and sorrow that linger throughout.

Jane Gardam's reputation in the United States has been greatly enlarged by the critical acclaim and commercial success garnered by her latest novels, Man in the Wooden Hat and her masterpiece Old Filth. Now, newcomers and fans alike can enjoy the pleasure of the splendid writing that established Gardam's considerable canon some four decades ago.

“Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer, mixing no-nonsense presentations of heartbreak, despair, and uncertainty, with equally dry but hilarious bouts of humor, desire, love, friendship, and even happiness, fleeting as that might be.” -- The Huffington Post

“Gardam orchestrates the subtle evolution of character and plot with Olympian omniscience and wry humor.” -- The Boston Globe

“God on the Rocks offers plenty of the wit and humanity that are her trademarks.” -- The Christian Science Monitor