Penelope Lively’s timeless, Booker Prize-winning novel explores the shifting nature of reality and identity through the many lives of its narrator
According to Mark
Written by Penelope Lively
- Shortlisted
- The Booker Prize 1984
- Published by William Heinemann
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A respectable married man becomes unstuck in Penelope Lively’s witty take on love, literature and the dangers of middle-aged folly
Mark is working on the life of Gilbert Strong - a writer about whom he thinks he knows everything. A happily married man, dedicated to a life of letters, Mark somehow manages to fall in love with Strong’s granddaughter, a vague young woman more interested in bedding plants and alpines than books or passion. As the summer of Mark’s obsessions steams along, he begins to understand that nothing is ever exactly what it seems - certainly not Gilbert Strong. And not himself either.
Penelope Lively
Penelope Lively won the Booker Prize in 1987 and has also been shortlisted twice – in 1977 and 1984
More about Penelope Lively Other nominated books by Penelope Lively
Through the life-changing experiences of 40-year-old Ann, Penelope Lively offers a subtle exploration of memory and identity, chance and consequence