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The Forever Girl
by McCall Smith, Alexander
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10
- 0349138710
- ISBN 13
- 9780349138718
- Seller
-
Dunfermline, Fife, United Kingdom
3 Copies Available from This Seller
(You can add more at checkout.)
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Little, Brown Book Group Limited. Used - Good. Ships from the UK. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Synopsis
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Isabel Dalhousie series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series, and the Corduroy Mansions series. He is professor emeritus of medical law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and has served with many national and international organizations concerned with bioethics. He lives in Scotland. From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews
On May 6 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
The Forever Girl is the third stand-alone adult novel by Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. New Yorker Amanda meets Scots accountant, David, they fall in love and marry. David’s work takes them to Grand Cayman, where they live among other ex-pats, Caribbean islanders and native Caymanians. They have two children: Sally, who renames herself Clover at four years of age, and Billy. Australian Alice and English doctor George live nearby, and their son, James goes to school with Clover at Cayman Prep. Clover and James are firm friends from day one, but as they grow up and Clover finds herself falling in love with James, Amanda realises the reverse is happening between her and David, and she is attracted to James’s father George. As events in their lives (parental separation, boarding school, University) see them drift apart, Clover is unable to dismiss her feelings for James, yet lacks the courage to speak of them because she knows he does not share them. As McCall Smith takes the reader from Cayman to Edinburgh to Melbourne and finally to Singapore through several decades of Amanda and Clover’s lives, he touches on many themes additional themes besides the main one of unrequited love: the concept of one true love; falling out of love; asking others to be a party to deceit; self-control vs repression; jealousy; obsession and irrational behaviour; private passions; platonic friendships; and guilt about inequality. As always, McCall Smith fills his novel with gentle philosophy as he tells his tale at a (perhaps too) sedate pace. McCall Smith has a well-honed expertise with the female protagonist, uncannily able to express what women think and feel. On God, Clover tells Ted “If it were a woman, she wouldn’t make things so hard for women”. He also gives them plenty of words of wisdom: on love, Amanda tells Clover “It’s the one thing, though – the one thing – that you just can’t be rational about. And I think that’s because love is fundamentally irrational – so how can you be rational about something that doesn’t make sense?” and about communication “We imagine that people know what we’re thinking, and they don’t. We misunderstand one another” Clover is a slightly frustrating heroine: she is given so much good advice that she ignores to her peril, yet the reader will not begrudge her the (fairly predictable) happy ending. Classic McCall Smith.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Better World Books Ltd (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 16224325-6
- Title
- The Forever Girl
- Author
- McCall Smith, Alexander
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 3
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0349138710
- ISBN 13
- 9780349138718
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group Limited
- This edition first published
- 2015
Terms of Sale
Better World Books Ltd
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping cost for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged. Please keep in mind that because we deal mostly in used books, any extra components, such as CDs or access codes, are usually not included. CDs: If the book does include a CD, it will be noted in the book's description ("With CD!"). Otherwise, there is no CD included, even if the term is used in the book's title. Access Codes: Unless the book is described as "New," please assume that the book does *not* have an access code.
About the Seller
Better World Books Ltd
Biblio member since 2009
Dunfermline, Fife
About Better World Books Ltd
Better World Books generates funding for literacy charities through the sales of second-hand books. Our current partner charities in the UK are READ International, the National Literacy Trust, Room to Read. (Registered Charities no. 1128534, no. 1116260 and no. 1125803 and the National Adult Literacy Agency. Much of our stock is ex-library due to our close relationships with UK libraries. We offer a service that helps them keep their unwanted books out of landfill. All ex-library books will be marked as such in their individual listings. 99% of orders are dispatched within 24 hours and we offer a 100% money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied.