Falling Slowly - Tapa dura

Beatrice considers herself delicate and sensitive, idle and confused. A piano accompanist forced into early retirement, her taste in books reveals an unashamed and romantic desire to be rescued by the ideal man. But Beatrice's only family is her orderly and independent sister Miriam. Miriam has known a loveless marriage, but unlike Beatrice she has also known love: both the kind based on desire and the kind based on esteem. In this, her eighteenth novel, Anita Brookner weaves a heart-wrenching tale of loneliness and friendship, fate and opportunity. In FALLING SLOWLY Brookner is at the top of her form as a twentieth century moralist.

Anita Brookner was born in London in 1928 and, apart from three years in Paris has lived there all her life. She trained as an art historian and taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art until 1988. FALLING SLOWLY is her 18th novel. She lives in South West London (SW10).