Sacred Country
1992 book by Rose Tremain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sacred Country is a novel by English author Rose Tremain. It was published in 1992 by Sinclair-Stevenson[1] and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize[2] and Prix Femina étranger.[3] It has been compared to Virginia Woolf's Orlando.[4]
Scribner (US)
First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Rose Tremain |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Sinclair-Stevenson (UK) Scribner (US) |
Publication date | 1992 (UK), 1993 (US) |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print, audio & eBook |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 1-85619-118-4 |
Plot introduction
"At the age of six, Mary Ward, the child of a poor farming family in Suffolk, has a revelation: she isn't Mary, she's a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender, while around her others also strive to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world".[5]
Reception
Positive review extracts on the back cover of the 2002 Vintage edition :
- "Hypnotic...Curiously beautiful and strikingly original" - Spectator
- "Brilliant...A strong, complex, unsentimental novel" - Times Literary Supplement
- "Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart...Funny absorbing and quite original. I've read nothing to touch it this year" - Literary Review
Stephen Dobyns writes for the New York Times, "a book that makes us feel good about the state of fiction in an uncertain market"[6]
Novelist Lynn Freed observes "The writing... is sheer delight. It is skilled, intelligent storytelling at its best".[7]
