Wonderfully Descriptive

• Book: The Art of Leaving
• Location: London
• Author: Anna Stothard

Review Author: Anne Cater

Back in January 2011, I read The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard. The Pink Hotel was longlisted for the Orange Prize and is currently being adapted for film.

Anna Stothard’s latest novel, The Art Of Leaving was published by Alma Books on 28 March 2013.

The story is set in Soho, London – not the most beautiful of settings, but Anna Stothard’s writing transforms this dreary part of the city into a sensual, often mysterious place with her wonderfully descriptive writing. She creates an almost magical fantasy world from what is in reality a run-down nightclub called The Scorpio Club – a place about which Eve, the lead character, dreams up stories of a long magician’s assistant. Eve herself is something of an enigma. The reader really never quite understands her. Eve enjoys endings, her life has been a series of endings and she remembers each one in fine detail.

This is a slow, yet intriguing story that centres around place and character rather than plot line. Anna Stothard uses brilliantly evocative phrases that conjure up a world that is almost bewitching at times.

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