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Book Cover for: Owl Song at Dawn, Emma Claire Sweeney

Owl Song at Dawn

Emma Claire Sweeney

As featured on Radio 4's Woman's Hour

Shortlisted for the Amazon Rising Star Award

Longlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize 2016

Hive Rising Writer for 2016

Maeve Maloney is a force to be reckoned with. Despite nearing eighty, she keeps Sea View Lodge just as her parents did during Morecambe's 1950s heyday. But now only her employees and regular guests recognise the tenderness and heartbreak hidden beneath her spikiness.

Until, that is, Vincent shows up. Vincent is the last person Maeve wants to see. He is the only man alive to have known her twin sister, Edie. The nightingale to Maeve's crow, the dawn to Maeve's dusk, Edie would have set her sights on the stage all things being equal. But, from birth, things never were.

If only Maeve could confront the secret past she shares with Vincent, she might finally see what it means to love and be loved a lesson that her exuberant yet inexplicable twin may have been trying to teach her all along.

A powerful and touching debut inspired by the author's autistic sister, perfect for fans of Karen Joy Fowler, Nathan Filer and Maggie O'Farrell.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Legend Press Ltd
  • Publish Date: Jul 1st, 2016
  • Pages: 352
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.70in - 5.00in - 1.10in - 0.75lb
  • EAN: 9781785079672
  • Categories: Family Life - SiblingsWomenLiterary

About the Author

Sweeney, Emma Claire: - "

Emma Claire Sweeney has won Arts Council, Royal Literary Fund and Escalator Awards, and has been shortlisted for several others, including the Asham, Wasafiri and Fish.

She teaches creative writing at New York University in London; co-runs SomethingRhymed.com - a website on female literary friendship; and publishes features and pieces on disability for the likes of the Guardian, the Independent on Sunday and The Times.

Owl Song at Dawn is inspired by her sister, who has autism.

Visit Emma at emmaclairesweeney.com or on Twitter @emmacsweeney

"

Praise for this book

'I found the novel most poignant and tender in its depiction of disability, without a whiff of sentimentality... it crept under my skin and will stay there for a long time.'--Emma Henderson (Orange Prize-shortlisted author of 'Grace Williams Says it Loud')
'An extraordinary tale of kindness, empathy, love, and secrets... I read it in one sitting!'--Elizabeth L. Silver (author of 'The Execution of Noa P. Singleton)
'Funny, heartbreaking and truly remarkable... the most deeply moving novel I have read in a long time.'--Susan Barker (New York Times best-selling author of 'The Incarnations')
'The writing is suffused from first to last with human warmth, empathic understanding... an important book - for our lives and consciences.'--Stevie Davies (Booker and Orange Prize-nominated author of 'The Element of Water')
'Remarkable... the story and the powerful nature of its telling raise it... to a place where its readers will find many ways into a world that might otherwise be closed to them... a huge achievement.'--William Horwood (author of 'Skallagrigg')
'Unmissable. A beautiful, brave and important novel, which joyfully subverts the prejudices and assumptions of our youth-obsessed, disability-phobic society... Fabulously readable and thought-provoking.'--Sarah Butler (author of 'Ten Things I've Learnt About Love')
'A delight: beautifully observed, deeply felt and utterly compelling. Sweeney writes with great humour, with wisdom, and with devastating empathy.'--Mary Volumer (author of 'Reliance, Illinois')
'Fresh, poignant and unlike anything else. Written with a deceptively light touch, this is a novel full of charm.'--Jill Dawson (Whitbread and Orange Prize-shortlisted author of 'Fred & Edie')
'An ambitious and emotional debut worthy of comparison with The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and Olive Kitteridge in its uncompromising and tender exploration of a life lost to prejudice and restored by love.'--Antonia Honeywell (author of 'The Ship')
'An original, brave and tender first novel.'--Maggie Gee (Orange Prize-shortlisted author of 'The White Family')
'Fresh, poignant and unlike anything else.'--Jill Dawson (Whitbread and Orange Prize-shortlisted author of 'Fred & Edie')
'It crept under my skin and will stay there for a long time.'--Emma Henderson (Orange Prize-shortlisted author of 'Grace Williams Says it Loud'
'Funny, heartbreaking and truly remarkable.'--Susan Barker (New York Times best-selling author of 'The Incarnations')
'...there is little mawkish or overtly sentimental about this quirky, moving novel...'--Claire Allfree "The Daily Mail" (7/22/2016 12:00:00 AM)
'...[a] quirky, moving novel...'--Claire Allfree "The Daily Mail" (7/22/2016 12:00:00 AM)
'Tender and unflinching, a beautifully observed novel about familial love and stoicism in the face of heartbreak.'--Carys Bray (Costa Prize-shortlisted author of 'A Song for Issy Bradley')
'Amazing: fierce, intelligent, compassionate and deeply moving... an important and very beautiful book.'--Edward Hogan (Desmond Elliot Prize-winning author of 'Blackmoor')