Heligoland (novel)
Encyclopedia
Heligoland, is a novel by British author Shena Mackay
, first published in 2003 by Jonathan Cape
.
It was shortlisted for both Whitbread Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction
. The Guardian
says of the book "This is drawn so playfully and so compassionately - and with such consistently beautiful writing - that the experience is mysteriously comic and sweet."
, once mentioned in the Shipping Forecast
but now apparently lost forever. She applies for a position as live in housekeeper at 'The Nautilus
' , a crumbling 1930s built spiral-shaped building in South London inhabited by an artistic community. Only two of its original inhabitants remain, Celeste Zylberstein and Francis Campion along with Gus Crabb, an antiques dealer. The story tells of Rowena coming to terms with her past and finding her place in the community...
Shena Mackay
Shena Mackay FRSL , is a Scottish novelist born in Edinburgh. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996 for The Orchard on Fire.-Biography:...
, first published in 2003 by Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
.
It was shortlisted for both Whitbread Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction
Orange Prize for Fiction
The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
says of the book "This is drawn so playfully and so compassionately - and with such consistently beautiful writing - that the experience is mysteriously comic and sweet."
Plot introduction
Rowena Snow, a woman of Scottish-Asian parentage but brought up as an orphan dreams of HeligolandHeligoland
Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...
, once mentioned in the Shipping Forecast
Shipping Forecast
The Shipping Forecast is a four-times-daily BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The forecasts sent over the Navtex...
but now apparently lost forever. She applies for a position as live in housekeeper at 'The Nautilus
Nautilus
Nautilus is the common name of marine creatures of cephalopod family Nautilidae, the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in two genera, the type of which is the genus Nautilus...
' , a crumbling 1930s built spiral-shaped building in South London inhabited by an artistic community. Only two of its original inhabitants remain, Celeste Zylberstein and Francis Campion along with Gus Crabb, an antiques dealer. The story tells of Rowena coming to terms with her past and finding her place in the community...
External links
- Links to book reviews
- Review from The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...