Absolutely and Forever

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A piercing story of thwarted love and true friendship from one of our greatest living writers

Marianne Clifford, 15, only child of a peppery army colonel and his vain wife, Lal, falls helplessly and absolutely for Simon Hurst, 18, whose cleverness and physical beauty suggest that he will go forward into a successful and monied future, helped on by doting parents. But fate intervenes. Simon's plans are blown off course, and Marianne is forced to bury her dreams of a future together.

Narrating her own story, characterising herself as ignorant and unworthy, Marianne's telling use of irony and smart thinking gradually suggest to us that she has underestimated her own worth. We begin to believe that - in the end, supported by her courageous Scottish friend, Petronella - she will find the life she never stops craving. But what we can't envisage is that beneath his blithe exterior, Simon Hurst has been nursing a secret which will alter everything.

©2023 Rose Tremain (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

  • PRAISE FOR ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER:
    ‘Stunningly beautiful and deeply moving‘

    Simon Schama

  • A perfect Tremain novel… English, dark and yearning… remarkable… [Tremain shows] us the things that make every human life extraordinary

    The Times

  • Funny, piercing and singular… this gorgeous, pitch-perfect novel is a world unto itself… it’s powerful, too… I can’t fathom the reason why you wouldn’t rush straight out to buy it

    Observer

  • A slim, funny, elegantly breezy coming-of-age story

    Sunday Times

  • A complex tale of becoming that’s moving, evocative and mesmerising in its acuity

    Mail on Sunday

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