Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023
Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing. Left behind with her baby brother and grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village,she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother's love; the smell of fresh herbs,the games they played,and the songs and stories of her childhood.
As time passes,Marianne struggles to adjust,fixated on her mother's disappearance and the secrets she's sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl and trusting in its promise of consolation,Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it,a task that she returns to over and over but somehow never manages to complete.
Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel and the tidal pull of the river,her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne And will her own future as a mother help her find peace
Publisher: The Indigo PressISBN: 9781911648529Weight: 250 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 17 mm
Pearl: Sian Hughes in conversation with Rebecca F. John
CardiffWednesday 1st November 19:00 - 20:00
A medieval poem,an unmarked tombstone and the tidal pull of a river spell either destruction or salvation for young Marianne in Hughes'Booker longlisted bravura study of fractured childhood and the healing power of art.
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