Girl Reading by Katie Ward
Want to win a copy of Girl Reading? We’ve got a copy to give away! Just scroll down to the end of this review to find out how you can be in with a chance to win…
When we visited Virago’s offices in early March, Girl Reading was one of the books they were all too eager to tell us about. The début novel by Katie Ward, Girl Reading isn’t out until early May, but it’s already got the blogosphere buzzing.
A series of seven chronological episodes that take us from medieval Siena through 1600s Amsterdam to present-day Shoreditch and beyond, each one imagines the narrative context to seven real-life portraits of women reading.
From the very first pages, telling the tale of on an orphan posing for a Renaissance artist painting the Annunciation on an altar in 1333, Girl Reading is rich and immersive, with painstaking attention to detail, pitch-perfect dialogue and description, and vivid, lyrical language:
“[The water] is deep and has drunk centuries of rain. Its sounds… are the hum of damselflies and the plop of invisible fish kicking the surface with their tails. Leaves answer with hushed applause.”
The readers’ voyeuristic adventures continue with a Victorian medium in her twin sister’s photography studio, a country summerhouse during WW1, and a woman mourning her lost love by commissioning a portrait from a celebrated artist (this chapter, based on Angelica Kauffmann’s 1775 Portrait of a Lady, was by far and away my favourite).
Overall, Girl Reading is innovative and enchanting; a unique and compelling concept that skilfully imagines and unravels the context of these untold stories. But the penultimate instalment, centring around an encounter in a Shoreditch bar in 2008, was the least successful.
With designer brand names used as clumsy, crass shorthand to signify life on the luxe side, the protagonist soon became irritating and unlikeable. Maybe because it’s set so close to the present day, this chapter doesn’t the same luminous magic as the others, transporting the reader to a long-gone time and place. Instead it came across as trivial and self-aggrandising.
The last episode, set in 2060, reminded me of Jeff Noon with its techno-inventions, sim-kitties, artificial intelligence and questions about the impermanence of art.
Although at times it threatened to tie all the previous threads together in an obvious and uncomfortable knot, I was eventually won over, and will be looking forward to seeing what Katie Ward does next.
Published by Virago on May 5th, you can pre-order it from Amazon in hardback for £9.89, or in paperback for £7.19.
If you can’t wait until then, we’ve got a copy to give away, generously provided by Virago. Want to win? Just tell us so in the comments, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more chances to win.
Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: The ones with interactive imaginations who get obsessed with the untold stories in arts and literature. Anyone with a fond hope of being immortalised every time they settle down for a session with their favourite Agatha Christie or erotica anthology.
Other recommended reading: For more insights into the intimacy and escapism of reading, take a peek at Reading Women, a book of portraits combined with commentary on the historical and cultural context. Who knows, you might even be inspired to do some scribbling about their stories too.
Jane Bradley
I’d love to win thanks x
Ooh, I’d also be partial to a bit of winning too! x
Winning would be lovely, thanks
As this is the second review I’ve stumbled across of this in two days I’m going to think that maybe I want to read the book! Stick me into the hat also please.
You guys have given us enough lovely things of late, but this does look awesome, so I’m throwing my hat in the ring anyway, haha!
ooh, i’d LOVE this!!! please put me in
Sounds good to me!
Looks like a really interesting book, and I love the cover – I’d love to win a copy.
Sounds like a great book, one to fall in love with, and we all need a bit of that in our lives!
Thanks so much for all the entries, everyone! We’ll be announcing a winner on Monday so keep ‘em coming…
That looks fascinating. I would love to win it.
I am intrigued, and I’d love to win.
Sounds really unique, please don’t make me wait until May! Thanks!
I want to read this. Will definitely buy it it I don’t win it
Great book, I hadn’t heard of it yet.
If the giveaway is international, I’d love to enter. I’m also following on twitter.
I’d love to win. Please!
If this contest includes the US, I’d love to enter. Haven’t heard of this book before but I’m intrigued, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about Virago.
I would love a copy of this please!
If the contest is international, then I’d love to be entered.
I’d like to win a copy very much. The premise sounds intriguing. <3 x I'm all for literary forays into the future and the past, plus a new book is a beautiful thing.
i am intregued wouldlove to win
Sounds absolutely fascinating. My kind of read. Pretty please.
Kit
Sounds interesting. I’d like to go in the draw please…
Beautiful cover- would love to judge the inside.
Well as they say, you have to be in it to win it. And I never win ANYTHING… So please change my luck, and let me win this.
Great review, hope it does well, excellent website too, will pass this on. Count me in. Thanks
Thanks everyone – we’re emailing our winner now so check your inboxes to see if you were the lucky one…
If not, don’t despair, we’ve got all sorts of other giveaways planned for the next few weeks so add us to your RSS feeds or befriend us on Twitter/Facebook to make sure we can tell you all about ‘em!
x
My sister in law collects cards depicting girls and women reading, so I’d love to win a copy of Girl Reading that I could give to her.