Fiction
Category: Fiction, Literary Fiction
Number of pages: 220
ISBN: 9781854114051
Publication date: March 31, 2006
Price: £7.99
Out of stock
A new translation of The Awakening, a classic novel by Kate Roberts, the major author of twentieth century Welsh literature.
The happy family life of Lora Ffennig is shattered when her husband abruptly and unexpectedly leaves her for a colleague. The world she has taken for granted is suddenly unfamiliar, and Lora must find a new compass to guide her and her children. Set in a tight-knit Welsh-speaking community at a time when separation, adultery and divorce carried huge social stigma, The Awakening is a novel full of insight into human character and changing social mores.
Intriguingly it sees Roberts in the middle of a fifty year writing career, responding to the erosion of the certainties of her early life through the influences of Chekhov and Maupassant.
Kate Roberts (1891-1985) was the dominant figure of Welsh-language literature in the twentieth century. Her novel Feet in Chains (1936) and stories Tea in the Heather (1959) are also available in translation from Seren.
Siân James is the popular and prize-winning author of ten novels and a collection of stories in the English language.
Kate Roberts
Kate Roberts (1891 – 1985) was born in Rhosgadfan near Caernarfon, in Wales’ slate-quarrying heartland. Widely regarded as the twentieth century’s outstanding Welsh-language novelist, she defined Welsh fiction for decades, and as publisher, critic and political activist had a huge influence on Welsh culture.
Siân James
Brought up and educated in West Wales, Siân James (1930-2021) is the author of twelve novels, including Love and War, Return to Hendre Ddu, and Storm at Arberth, as well as two collections of short stories. She has twice won the Yorkshire Post Prize for fiction and her novel A Small Country was filmed as the award-winning Calon Gaeth. Her translation of Kate Roberts’ The Awakening, is also published by Seren. Twice-winner of the Yorkshire Post Prize.
