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The Colour of Grass
| £8.99 |
"This read will draw you into its story within minutes" Woman Magazine
"..witty, wry and charming" Western Mail
The Colour of Grass by Nia Williams is a story about families, past and present, and life’s unexpected connections.
Helen’s family is falling apart. There are no answers from her husband. She can't communicate with her daughter. So she turns to other relatives: the ones who are dead and gone. Straightaway she finds herself floundering in a new world of friends, secrets, enemies and family history enthusiasts. Clandestine meetings, a mugging, and the surprisingly tragic story of her mystery grandmother - all of these weave themselves into Helen's present and her unknown past.
With family history flourishing online, on TV and in magazines, The Colour of Grass is a gentle and touching story of families past and present, the identities we create for life's unexpected connections and ourselves.
Comments
Review from Woman Magazine
This read will draw you into its story within minutes.
The Hotlist, Woman Magazine
Review from Western Mail
There is much to savour in this charming and beautifully written book. Williams is a musician as well as a writer and she delivers this, her third novel, with a sonorous touch.
Her heroine, Helen Pascoe, is a bit green. Unassertive, unassuming, condescending and quiet, she finds herself a woman of 64 emerging into widowhood as a little old lady. Not much to go on you might think. There's not much for Helen to go on in her life either. Husband Nick has taken his lingering leave so she hasn't even got the vigil by his hospital bed to shape her life around. Their only daughter, Lisa, is not a lot of comfort, forever arguing with her own husband in a childless marriage. People who can't see what's ahead tend to face the past.
Against her better judgment she finds herself getting interested in family history and discovers a new world and some surprising new friends. Williams illuminates her characters with wry observations of human fancies and foibles. But it's her turns of phrase that stand out and will delight lovers of the language.
This is a story of relationships that is witty, wry and charming.
Steve Dube, Western Mail 14th May 2011