Pondweed - by Lisa Blower (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>A love story in the slow lane: childhood sweethearts meet again in later life, and take a caravan trip - via pints, ponds and pit stops - to find their future on a road rarely travelled between Stoke-on-Trent (UK) and Wales.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>With a nod to 'Last Tango in Halifax', this 'last tango in Wales' is loosely based on Lisa's widowed Great-Granny Gladys, who got chatting to an elderly gentleman at the bus stop who turned out to be her childhood sweetheart. In <i>Pondweed</i>, pond supplies salesman Selwyn Robby arrives home one Monday afternoon towing the Toogood Aquatics exhibition caravan and orders his like-wife, Imogen 'Ginny' Dare, to get into the car. He's taking her on a little holiday, he says. To Wales. So begins their road trip west, via blasts from Selwyn's past, and a fortnight's journey of self-discovery for them both. But it's a fishy business towing this caravan, with its saucy mermaid curtains and fully stocked bar, and Ginny must untangle the pondweed to get to the bottom of it, even it does mean unearthing her own murky past to find out.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>'Funny, tough, sharp, surprising and unsentimental writing.' - Chris Power 'Funny, moving, philosophical and wise. A road trip through life, loss, and the murky depths of the human heart. Utterly charming and utterly hilarious.' - Emma Jane Unsworth 'A novel that dares to find the lyrical, the luminous and the hilarious in the kind of people and places that literature often overlooks. It maps out an unsentimental love story via an unconventional road movie and finds humour and enlightenment in a Britain of caravans and out-of-town aquatics dealers.' - Stuart Maconie 'Lisa Blower is a highly regarded short-story writer whose new novel tells the tale of an unlikely road trip undertaken by Selwyn and Ginny, two endearing and idiosyncratic sixty-somethings. Blower has drawn an unlikely romance between two people who are meant for each other, but don't know how to be together.' - Dan Brotzel, iNews 'Every once in a while you come across a book which is riveting from the first page. The words entrap you completely, leaving you in a state of reverie. I can say without reservation that this title lived up to the hype for me. Blower powerfully captures a kaleidoscope of emotions as the characters continue to work through the tiffs, reflect on their patterns and discover their way back to each other. She has knit together an extremely raw and moving narrative. Pondweed is unlike anything that I have read and it exceeded all my expectations. Achingly beautiful storytelling and a greatly humanizing portrait of love and loss.' - The Biblio Sara, bookstagrammer (5/5 star review) 'Perfect summer reading.' - Turnaround Blog 'The characters in this novel are just fascinating - particularly Ginny. At first the past is murky, hidden in the depths of the novel, until their voyage gradually untangles it (reminiscent of Selwyn's beloved pondweed). I loved the gentle twists and turns, as our perceptions of the characters and their actions gradually evolve with the novel.' - Sophie Jo Books, bookstagrammer 'This was so different from anything I've read lately and it was such a welcome surprise for me. In equal parts charming and emotive, this story always had my attention and I always found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next to these two... This would make a really good TV [show] I reckon, one I'd watch for sure.' - My Bookworm Life, bookstagrammer 'Edgy, raw and just a little bit dark Lisa Blower's prose is biting and fresh. This is a book that makes you work, and it's a joy. It is a book to lose yourself in, filled with simple yet devastating truths and razor sharp observations. And it is funny, laugh out loud funny. In that way that snatches of life and overheard conversations take on meaning and mirth. For every pool of darkness, there is a glorious patch of light. Without a doubt one of my reads of the year.' - Book Bound 'Lisa Blower's short story collection (It's Gone Dark Over Bill's Mother's) was one of my favourite books of last year so her novel Pondweed was my most anticipated book of 2020 and it does not disappoint!' - Henleyonthomas, bookstagrammer 'Her characters are wry and complex, despite the apparent mundanity of their surroundings.' - Big Issue North 'Pondweed is superb and I was entirely drawn in. Lisa Blower has the knack of making the most mundane and unlikely worlds become full of depth and color. The concept is high comedy but these folk become so quickly, quietly tragic and more tragic because they had so little to lose in the first place, and yet somehow managed to lose it. This is a delicate, careful novel about people we are forced to care about.' - Jonathan Davidson, Writing West Midlands 'Lisa Blower is an excellent storyteller. It's a phenomenal talent, to be able to to make people care about the history of people that they don't necessarily even like that much, and Lisa manages it brilliantly.' - Ninja Book Box 'A novel that dares to find the lyrical, the luminous and the hilarious in the kind of people and places that literature often overlooks. Down arterial roads and a variety of stops and diversions, Pondweed maps out an unsentimental love story via an unconventional road movie and finds humour and enlightenment in a Britain of caravans and out-of-town aquatics dealers.' - Stuart Maconie 'Read all of Pondweed yesterday. Bloody loved it! I miss Selwyn and Ginny already.' - Bookish Chat, bookstagrammer 'A tale of the extraordinary within the ordinary is clearly signposted by the premise of an unexpected journey in an unlikely caravan, by Ginny saying of Selwyn that 'the world had pushed him to one side, as it had with me' and by the sparkling, dancing quality of Blower's writing. 'I once read that you can kill a man with a single blow to the temple with a frozen sausage, ' says Ginny, in an early laugh-out-loud moment. Blower's sketches of minor characters are delicious [and] her taste for drama, when present in her scene descriptions and characters, works brilliantly.' - Mandy Sutter, New Welsh Review<br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br>Lisa Blower won the Guardian National Short Story Award and was listed for the BBC National Short Story Award and the Sunday Times Short Story Award. Her debut novel <i>Sitting Ducks</i> was shortlisted for the Arnold Bennett Prize and her short story collection <i>It's Gone Dark Over Bill's Mother's</i> (Myriad, 2019) was widely praised. A contributor to <i>Common People</i>, edited by Kit de Waal, she has a PhD from Bangor University and teaches at Wolverhampton University. She lives in Shrewsbury.
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