{"title":"Clare Chambers","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"small-pleasures-a-novel","title":"Small Pleasures: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett—an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"With wit and dry humor...quietly affecting in unexpected ways. Chambers' language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details.\"--\u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It’s a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen’s gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives…with unimaginable consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth a mystery and a love story, \u003cem\u003eSmall Pleasures \u003c\/em\u003eis a literary tour-de-force in the style of \u003cem\u003eThe Remains of the Day\u003c\/em\u003e, about conflict between personal fulfillment and duty; a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Clare Chambers","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":53153970749731,"sku":"9780063090996","price":15.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780063090996.jpg?v=1741160405"},{"product_id":"shy-creatures-a-novel","title":"Shy Creatures: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A beautiful story of unfolding secrets and unforeseen consequences, filled with moments that are somehow restrained and astute and gorgeously written all at the same time.\"—Holly Gramazio, bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eThe Husbands\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Infinitely moving, quirky, acutely observed and beautifully written...Confirms Clare Chambers as one of our most talented writers.\"--\u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn alluring literary mystery full of secrets and lies, when an art teacher at a psychiatric hospital in 1960s England finds her life turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious patient who has spent decades living in complete isolation with his elderly aunts in a decrepit Victorian house. Perfect for fans of Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, and Tessa Hadley.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn all failed relationships there is a tipping point. It goes unnoticed at the time but can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park…\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe London suburb of Croydon,1964: Helen Hansford is unmarried and in her thirties. Something of a disappointment to her middle-class parents, she’s an art therapist at the Westbury Park psychiatric hospital, where she has been having a rebellious love affair with her colleague Gil, a dashing but married doctor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance at a derelict, vine-covered Victorian house a few miles up the road. There the police find a mute, thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, his hair and beard down to his waist. It appears he lives in the old house with his elderly, frail aunt, who expires as soon as she’s admitted to the hospital. No one knows why William has been shut away for decades, unseen by neighbors, with only his two now-deceased aunts for company. Westbury Park becomes his refuge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen it emerges that William is not only sane but a talented artist, Helen comes to see him as something of a personal project. But as she tries to solve the puzzle of the Hidden Man’s past, Helen’s own carefully constructed life of secrets begins to unravel...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA gorgeously written and life-affirming novel about life’s delicate layers of experience and connection, \u003cem\u003eShy Creatures\u003c\/em\u003e reveals all the different ways we can be confined...and liberated.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Clare Chambers","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":54959057076515,"sku":"9780063258235","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":53509055873315,"sku":"9780063258228","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780063258228_c4b88a59-8cf8-4166-8c1a-5c66b80836b0.jpg?v=1743574202"}],"url":"https:\/\/epicreads.com\/collections\/clare-chambers.oembed","provider":"Epic Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}