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2013 Longlist

Half of the Human Race

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Summer of 1911. The streets of London ring with cheers for a new king’s coronation and the cries of increasingly violent suffragette protests.

Connie Callaway, fired up by the possibilities of independence, wants more than the conventional comforts of marriage. Spirited and courageous, she is determined to fight for ‘the greatest cause the world has ever known’.

Will Maitland, the rising star of county cricket, is a man of traditional opinions. He is both intrigued and appalled by Connie’s outspokenness and her quest for self-fulfilment.

Buffeted and spun by choice and chance, their lives become inextricably entangled, even as the outbreak of war drives them further apart. This is a deeply affecting story of love against all the odds.

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Anthony
Quinn

Anthony Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1964. From 1998 to 2013 he was the film critic for the Independent. He is the author of six novels: The Rescue Man, which won the 2009 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award; Half of the Human Race; The Streets, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Walter Scott Prize; Curtain Call, which was chosen for Waterstones and Mail on Sunday Book Clubs; Freya, a Radio 2 Book Club choice and Eureka.

Anthony Quinn was born in Liverpool in 1964. From 1998 to 2013 he was the film critic for the Independent. He is the author of six novels: The Rescue Man, which won the 2009 Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award; Half of the Human Race; The Streets, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Walter Scott Prize; Curtain Call, which was chosen for Waterstones and Mail on Sunday Book Clubs; Freya, a Radio 2 Book Club choice and Eureka.

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Half of the Human Race is powerful and touching, in Connie, Quinn has created a compelling heroine.

A masterful treatise on the different wars we wage and what is what is not cricket, both in human relationships and the World at large. Quinn captures his chosen period really convincingly, with immaculately written prose. One of the absolute literary highlights of the year.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
07/01/2011
Author
Publisher
Jonathan Cape

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