Canvey Island

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It is 1953 in Canvey Island. Len and Violet are at a dance. Violet's husband George sits and watches them sway and glide across the dance floor, his mind far away, trapped by a war that ended nearly ten years ago. Meanwhile, at home, a storm rages and Len's wife Lily and his young son Martin fight for their lives in the raging black torrent. The night ends in a tragedy that will reverberate through their lives. This poignant novel follows the family's fortunes from the austerity of the post-war years to Churchill's funeral, from Greenham Common to the onset of Thatcherism and beyond, eloquently capturing the very essence of a transforming England in the decades after the war. It is a triumph of understated emotion, a novel about growing up and growing old, about love, hope and reconciliation.From Publishers WeeklyIn 1953, a major flood devastated Britain's Canvey Island, killing dozens of residents. Runcie (The Discovery of Chocolate) uses this disaster as the starting point for his beautifully crafted novel, which examines the effects of guilt, love, lust and betrayal in the wake of tragedy. On the night of the flood, Lily skips the big dance on the mainland to stay home with her young son, Martin, telling her husband, Len, to go with her sister, Violet, and her husband. When the flood waters rise, Lily and Martin try to escape but Lily gets stuck, sends Martin for help yet drowns before rescuers arrive. Though Martin leaves the island to attend Cambridge, he cannot shake his guilt over his mother's death and resents his father and aunt, who take up together soon after the flood. Years later, when he's a parent himself, Martin returns to Canvey Island and is forced to confront everything he thought he had left behind. Told through multiple perspectives, Runcie's story eloquently weaves together a national tragedy and the fate of a single family with powerful results. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn 1953 Canvey Island, off the coast of Britain, suffered the ill effects of a storm surge, which flooded the island. In this fictionalized account of the tragedy, nine-year-old Martin and his mother, Lily, fight to stay above water, but Lily is unable to free herself from the debris, and she is swept under. Her death becomes the defining moment of Martin’s life; he grows up obsessed with water and becomes an engineer, forever trying to figure out the best way to hold back the sea. He never quite forgives his father, Len, for failing to save his wife and for taking up with her sister, the flamboyant Violet. Martin himself gives up his free-spirited girlfriend, in part because he loves her too much, opting instead to marry Claire, a vicar’s daughter with a rebellious streak. In highly readable chapters narrated by each family member, the book manages to address class and generational conflict as it travels through the decades. Its most singular achievement, though, lies in the way it pays tribute to the intensity of ordinary lives. --Joanne Wilkinson