Synopses & Reviews
Alfred and Emily is an intimate and revealing book by Doris Lessing, the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature and author of The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook, that explores the lives of her parents, each irrevocably damaged by the Great War. After beginning with a novella that portrays the happier life her parents would have led had there been no war, Lessing proceeds to tell the story of their marriage as it actually was in this “intriguing work . . . [that] shimmers with precisely remembered details.” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)
Review
“Alfred and Emily reveals why Lessing deserved literatures highest honor. There is a remarkable level of courage, honesty, and wisdom in Alfred and Emily. . . . Lessing, nearing 90, continues to surprise.” USA Today
Review
“A truly intriguing piece of work...the book is also an interesting glimpse of an empire and an era.” Christian Science Monitor
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“An intriguing work . . . [that] shimmers with precisely remembered details.” Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
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“Laced with the subtlest of observations and the wryest of wit...This unusual marriage of fiction and memoir (and family photographs) results in a book at once spellbinding, rueful, and tragic.” Booklist (starred review)
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“A clever, moving coupling of fiction and nonfiction. ALFRED and EMILY is...a testament to [Lessings] ongoing literary vitality.” Washington Post Book World
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“She has never displayed her potent imagination to better effect, or her gift for probing realism . . . a profoundly moving memoir and portrait of a marriage.” Wall Street Journal
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“An odd and powerful excursion into lost time. . . . a powerful reminder not only of Lessings past but also of how each of us can return to our own and come back with something precious.” San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
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“A stirring exploration . . . gently yet deeply moving” Minneapolis Star Tribune
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“Lessings taste for discomfiting truths is as evident as ever…as bracing and engaging as anything she has written.” Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
From the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature comes a memoir that interweaves fiction writing and autobiography in an utterly unique and innovative way.
Synopsis
In this profoundly moving book, Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing explores the lives of her parents, each irrevocably damaged by the Great War. In the fictional first half of
Alfred and Emily, she imagines the happier lives her parents might have made for themselves had there been no war. This is followed by a piercing examination of their relationship as it actually was in the shadow of the devastating global conflict.
"Here I still am," says Lessing, "trying to get out from under that monstrous legacy, trying to get free." Triumphantly, with Alfred and Emily, she has done just that.
About the Author
Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, Doris Lessing was one of the most celebrated and distinguished writers of our time, the recipient of a host of international awards, including the Somerset Maugham Award, the David Cohen Memorial Prize for British Literature, the James Tait Black Prize for best biography, Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize and Prix Catalunya, and the S. T. Dupont Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature.
Lessing was born of British parents in Persia on October 22, 1919, and moved with her family to Southern Rhodesia when she was five years old. She went to England in 1949, where she published her first book, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer. In 1962, she broke new ground with her novel The Golden Notebook. She wrote more than thirty books—among them the novels Martha Quest, The Fifth Child, and her last work Alfred and Emily; stories, reportage, poems, and plays; and several nonfiction works, including books about cats, and two volumes of autobiography, Walking in the Shade and Under My Skin. She died on November 17, 2013. Her portrait hangs in London's National Portrait Gallery.