The Last of the Greenwoods, Clare Morrall
The Last of the Greenwoods, Clare Morrall
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Last of the Greenwoods

Author: Clare Morrall

Narrator: Katy Sobey

Unabridged: 12 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Sceptre

Published: 02/08/2018


Synopsis

The intriguing story of two eccentric brothers and a troubled young postwoman - three outsiders whose pasts resurface in a captivating novel about guilt and forgiveness.

In a field outside Bromsgrove, two elderly brothers live in adjoining railway carriages. No one visits and they never speak to each other. Until the day Zohra Dasgupta, a young postwoman, delivers an extraordinary letter - from a woman claiming to be the sister they thought had been murdered fifty years earlier.

So begins an intriguing tale: is this woman an impostor? If she's not, what did happen all those years ago? And why are the brothers such recluses? Then there's Zohra. Once a bright, outgoing teenager, the only friend she will see from her schooldays is laidback Crispin, who has roped her in to the restoration of an old railway line on his father's land. For which, as it happens, they need some carriages . . .

With wry humour and a cast of characters as delightful as they are damaged, Clare Morrall tells an engrossing story of past misdeeds and present reckoning, which shows that for all the wrong turnings we might take, sometimes it is possible to retrace our steps.

(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

About Clare Morrall

Clare Morrall's first novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was published in 2003 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that year. She has since published the novels Natural Flights of the Human Mind, The Language of Others, The Man Who Disappeared, which was a TV Book Club Summer Read in 2010, The Roundabout Man and After the Bombing.Born in Exeter, Clare Morrall now lives in Birmingham. She works as a music teacher, and has two daughters.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Fiona on March 24, 2022

Charming, strange and weirdly nostalgic. I have no idea really what genre this book settles in, there is too much going on to define it. I love the concept of someone living in an abandoned railway carriage, it sounds mysteriously wonderful. I loved the writing but feel strange now the last page has......more

Goodreads review by Paula on February 03, 2018

If ever I had the ability to write a book I'd really want it to be like this one. It takes a real talent to present such a unique story and absorb a reader so deeply. I was truly captivated by this delightful tale and built up such a clear picture of the characters and surroundings it was as if I wa......more

Goodreads review by Adam on June 03, 2022

The story of two reclusive brothers living in old railway carriages and a young postwoman who delivers a letter that will change their lives. I enjoyed this slowly unravelling character tale which fundamentally is about being haunted by the past, and isolating yourself physically or mentally as a re......more

Goodreads review by Eightlegs on July 15, 2023

A tale of two brothers and events that happened years ago and the impact on the present, set alongside other characters who are also dealing with their pasts. This is the second I've read by this author and I've enjoyed them both, always a slightly different angle on the lives of everyday people.......more

Goodreads review by Samantha on October 18, 2018

I was given this book as part of Newark Book Festival and went to a talk the author gave. I really enjoyed hearing her speak about this and her other books and was looking forward to reading this one. She likes writing characters who are different in some way, perhaps marginalised from society, and......more


Quotes

Morrall's writing is tender and subtle: each character is finely drawn, with their flaws and tics as vivid as their courage and kindness. At no point is one drawn into a false sense of empathy; rather, we meander through the story, becoming increasingly involved. As the plot streams towards it triumphant conclusion, the strands unite into a story that is set in time but also timeless - about recognition, family and what it means to belong. Literary Review