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God on the Rocks
Jane Gardam
#UE6212 Paperback, 195 pages; 2010 (1978) $5.90

  A Booker Prize finalist first published in 1978, God on the Rocks is a coming-of-age novel, family drama, and period satire all in one. Having grown up in an oppressively religious household on the English coast between the two world wars, eight-year-old Margaret Marsh finds her eyes opened to a whole new world when her parents hire a buxom and vivacious nanny, Lydia, to entertain her. And the change in the air seems to infect her parents, as well: Mr. Marsh begins to take an uncomfortable interest in Lydia's "soul," and Mrs. Marsh reconnects with friends from her past, exposing Margaret to a side of her mother she has never known. But soon pent-up passions and repressed emotions rise to the surface, hurtling the whole family toward a dramatic precipice where young Margaret's life lies in the balance. (AG)