Critics' Opinion:
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Published Feb 2013
240 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Paperback Original
Ten White Geese is the eagerly anticipated, internationally bestselling new novel by the winner of the world's richest literary prize for a single work of fiction.
A woman rents a remote farm in rural Wales. She says her name is Emilie. An Emily Dickinson scholar, she has fled Amsterdam, having just confessed to an affair. On the farm she finds ten geese. One by one they disappear. Who is this woman? Will her husband manage to find her? The young man who stays the night: why won't he leave? And the vanishing geese?
Set against a stark and pristine landscape, and with a seductive blend of solace and menace, this novel of stealth intrigue summons from a woman's silent longing fugitive moments of profound beauty and compassion.
"Starred Review. Bakker's spare prose gradually builds a sense of urgency beneath this haunting novel's deceptively placid surface." - Publishers Weekly
"In stark but lyrical prose, Bakker explores themes of both isolation and intimacy." - Kirkus Reviews
"A beautiful, oddly moving work of fiction, a quiet read that lingers long in the mind, like the ghosts that linger in our homes, and in the land around us...Assured and mature...Even more powerful [than The Twin]." - The Guardian (UK)
"Simple and devastating...Written and translated with lapidary precision, perspective, and crisp prose; there is emotion and expression, but held back from the writing, which is controlled and full of clean, physical detail." - The Independent (UK)
"A novel full of hints and mysteries [that] will almost certainly keep you rooted to your chair until the dénouement." - The Spectator (UK)
This information about Ten White Geese was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gerbrand Bakker won the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for his first novel, The Twin. An avid gardener, he lives in Holland.
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