I dont know the title to this book, but I'm interested in reading it
(the first chapter was given to us to evaluate, but it was about 2 years ago and i cant remember the name)
It begins:
"NOUGHTH WEEK
A children's tea party in the land that style forgot. One small pink-cheeked boy, white old-man's braces over the top of his padded navy jacket, is laboriously speading cream cheese on wholemeal bread. Another, in a miss-toggle duffel coat and, unmistakably, pyjamas, is building a scale model of a Roman catapult on a pile of monochrome periodicals, with matchsticks for timbers and a half-sucked Polish liqueur chocolate for the stone. In the corner a tiny child of indeterminate sex is reading Asterix, in French, back-to-front. It has mistaken it for Hebrew, a scholary language which every child should know. Underneath the table, eight little girls in party-couduroy and smicking are giggling under a purple towel, entirely invisible, if only to each other. And in the doorway, the sister of the most giggly and sugar-glutted girl, her private counting games forgotton, is watching them silently through a bright cold tunnel of envy, her body as still as a sentry's, her mind a frosted bowl.
Where are the adults? Behind the standing girl, in the kitchen. Five women are drinking coffee and looking for a place to hide their own inedible chocolates"
Judging by the language and events that occur, I'm guessing it is a rather recently published novel. And also some of the words used suggest it may be American, but I'm not sure.
If anyone recognises it, that would be really helpful.
Thanks
(the first chapter was given to us to evaluate, but it was about 2 years ago and i cant remember the name)
It begins:
"NOUGHTH WEEK
A children's tea party in the land that style forgot. One small pink-cheeked boy, white old-man's braces over the top of his padded navy jacket, is laboriously speading cream cheese on wholemeal bread. Another, in a miss-toggle duffel coat and, unmistakably, pyjamas, is building a scale model of a Roman catapult on a pile of monochrome periodicals, with matchsticks for timbers and a half-sucked Polish liqueur chocolate for the stone. In the corner a tiny child of indeterminate sex is reading Asterix, in French, back-to-front. It has mistaken it for Hebrew, a scholary language which every child should know. Underneath the table, eight little girls in party-couduroy and smicking are giggling under a purple towel, entirely invisible, if only to each other. And in the doorway, the sister of the most giggly and sugar-glutted girl, her private counting games forgotton, is watching them silently through a bright cold tunnel of envy, her body as still as a sentry's, her mind a frosted bowl.
Where are the adults? Behind the standing girl, in the kitchen. Five women are drinking coffee and looking for a place to hide their own inedible chocolates"
Judging by the language and events that occur, I'm guessing it is a rather recently published novel. And also some of the words used suggest it may be American, but I'm not sure.
If anyone recognises it, that would be really helpful.
Thanks