{"title":"Francesca Kay","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the poignant and beautifully written novels of Francesca Kay. Explore themes of love, loss, and resilience in her compelling stories, perfect for readers who enjoy thoughtful and character-driven narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"book-of-days-book-francesca-kay-9781800753495","title":"The Book of Days","description":"'At least that post-Reformation sovereignty of the word still yields novels as richly imagined and skilfully crafted as this' The Spectator   Longlisted for the 2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction  Longlisted in the 2024 HWA Crown Awards   ANNO DOMINI 1546.   In a manor house in England a young woman feels the walls are closing around her, while her dying husband is obsessed by his vision of a chapel where prayers will be said for his immortal soul. As the days go by and the chapel takes shape, the outside world starts to intrude. But as the old ways are replaced by the new, the people of the village sense a dangerous freedom …   Reader Reviews   ‘A must read … Characters that one cares about, beautifully structured, a real page turner’   ‘A jewel of a book’   ‘Beautifully written’   ‘Atmospheric and compelling'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49509790843153,"sku":"GOR013600841","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622941860113,"sku":"GOR013652630","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49753796673809,"sku":"NGR9781800753495","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52771217309969,"sku":"GOR014613877","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52815823503633,"sku":"CIN1800753497G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1800753497.jpg?v=1759230002"},{"product_id":"equal-stillness-book-francesca-kay-9780753825655","title":"An Equal Stillness","description":"Winner of the Orange Award for New Writers 2009  Artist, lover, wife, mother: can one woman be them all?  Born in 1924, Jennet Mallow grew up with a disillusioned mother and a father haunted by memories of war. But Jennet has a talent - and a passion - for art. When she meets the handsome painter David Heaton they begin a tempestuous affair which takes them from the dank terraces of London to a bohemian artistic community in  St Ives. But as Jennet's career flourishes, her relationship with David suffers - with potentially tragic consequences . . .     'The most beautiful, accomplished debut I have read for a long time . . . It is a powerful novel by a supremely talented artist' OBSERVER   'Enchanting . . . exquisitely written' DAILY EXPRESS  'A masterful portrait of a woman forging an unexpectedly dazzling career against the backdrop of familial duty' EASY LIVING","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49518213071121,"sku":"GOR001224978","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49728968622353,"sku":"NGR9780753825655","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49937973739793,"sku":"CIN0753825651G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50407514046737,"sku":"GOR012291878","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50827127259409,"sku":"GOR001344396","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51698463605009,"sku":"CIN0753825651VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52973268795665,"sku":"CIN0753825651A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0753825651.jpg?v=1751168838"},{"product_id":"long-room-book-francesca-kay-9780571322503","title":"The Long Room","description":"What happens to a man who has his ear pressed to the lives of others but not much life of his own? When Stephen Donaldson joins the Institute, he anticipates excitement, romance and new status. Instead he gets the tape-recorded conversations of ancient communists and ineffectual revolutionaries, until the day he is assigned a new case: the ultra-secret PHOENIX. Is PHOENIX really working for a foreign power? Stephen hardly cares; it is the voice of the target's wife that mesmerises him.   This is December 1981. Bombs are exploding, a cold war is being waged, another war is just over the horizon and the nation is transfixed by weekly instalments of Brideshead Revisited. Dangerously in love, and lonely, Stephen sets himself up for a vertiginous fall that will forever change his life.  As beautiful as it is intense, The Long Room is the dazzling new novel from an award-winning writer. With her mastery of the perfect detail, Francesca Kay explores a mind under pressure and the compelling power of imagination.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49536511541521,"sku":"GOR007276867","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52651945722129,"sku":"GOR007180870","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571322506.jpg?v=1750847266"},{"product_id":"equal-stillness-book-francesca-kay-9780297855491","title":"An Equal Stillness","description":"Jennet Mallow is born in Yorkshire in the 1920s but her interest in art and creativity alienates her from her family, her father who is a priest, her conventional sister and her emotionally stunted mother. Jennet moves to London in search of a more exciting life and finds it in her new environment and in the handsome and enigmatic figure of the painter David Heaton. When Jennet falls pregnant, her parents more or less force the two to marry. In the postwar austerity of the 1940s, the young couple struggles to make ends meet and Jennet finds that her home life is gradually eroding everything she has fought to achieve. Aware that David is becoming increasingly reliant on drink and tired of the dank and drab bedsit in which they live, Jennet suggests they move to Spain. There, the bright blue skies, warm air and sunlit beaches give the couple and their children a new lease of life. Jennet begins to paint again and an agent takes an interest in her work. But as Jennet's own career begins to take off, her relationship with David sours and the two enter a destructive spiral with tragic consequences.  Written in the form of a biography, An Equal Stillness is an outstanding debut, breathtaking in the poise and beauty of its language and craft.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49540550394129,"sku":"GOR001212225","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50273552204049,"sku":"GOR003484580","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0297855492.jpg?v=1751356706"},{"product_id":"translation-of-the-bones-book-francesca-kay-9781780220147","title":"The Translation of the Bones","description":"A searingly powerful novel about passion and isolation, about the nature of belief, about love and motherhood, for fans of Ali Smith and Maggie O'Farrell  In a church in Battersea, Mary-Margaret O'Reilly sees blood on her hands and believes she has witnessed a miracle. The consequences are both profound and devastating - not just for her but for others, too: Father Diamond, the parish priest, struggling with his own faith. Stella, adrift in her marriage and aching for her ten-year old son, away at boarding school. Alice, counting the days until her soldier son comes home. And Mary-Margaret's mother, imprisoned in a tower block with nothing but her thoughts for company... What happens to Mary-Margaret will send ripples through this tight community, raising questions about the nature of devotion - in all its forms - and the cost of loving in a confusing world.  'Unfailingly gripping, filled with the essential ingredients - tension and emotion.' Patricia Duncker, LITERARY REVIEW  'Beautifully musical sentences with carefully judged rhythms.' Philip Womack, DAILY TELEGRAPH  'Skillfully constructed and beautifully written.' Peter Parker, SUNDAY TIMES","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49562227474705,"sku":"GOR004184906","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50832875258129,"sku":"GOR004614690","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50980776149265,"sku":"GOR004174559","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1780220146.jpg?v=1751059571"},{"product_id":"translation-of-the-bones-book-francesca-kay-9780297865087","title":"The Translation of the Bones","description":"Reality or delusion?  Fantasy or fact? When word gets out that Mary-Margaret O'Reilly, a slow-witted but apparently harmless young woman, may have been witness to a miracle, religious mania descends on the Church of the Sacred Heart in Battersea. The consequences will be profound, not only for Mary-Margaret but for others too - Father Diamond, the parish priest, who is in the midst of  his own crisis of faith, and  Stella Morrison, adrift in her marriage and  aching for her ten-year old son, away at boarding school. In the same parish Alice Armitage counts the days until her soldier son comes home from Afghanistan, and Mary-Margaret's mother, Fidelma, imprisoned in a tower block, stares out over London with nothing but her thoughts for company. Remembering her early childhood by the sea in Ireland, the bleak institution she was sent to and the boy she loved, she hungers for consoling touch. In the meantime Mary-Margaret's quest grows increasingly desperate. But no one is prepared for the shocking outcome that ensues. The Translation of the Bones is a searingly powerful novel about passion and isolation, about the nature of belief, about love and motherhood and a search for truth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49615153234193,"sku":"GOR003779822","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49616179200273,"sku":"GOR003343319","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0297865080.jpg?v=1751291518"},{"product_id":"long-room-book-francesca-kay-9780571322527","title":"The Long Room","description":"What happens to a man who has his ear pressed to the lives of others but not much life of his own? When Stephen Donaldson joins the Institute, he anticipates excitement, romance and new status. Instead he gets the tape-recorded conversations of ancient communists and ineffectual revolutionaries, until the day he is assigned a new case: the ultra-secret PHOENIX. Is PHOENIX really working for a foreign power? Stephen hardly cares; it is the voice of the target's wife that mesmerises him.   This is December 1981. Bombs are exploding, a cold war is being waged, another war is just over the horizon and the nation is transfixed by weekly instalments of Brideshead Revisited. Dangerously in love, and lonely, Stephen sets himself up for a vertiginous fall that will forever change his life.  As beautiful as it is intense, The Long Room is the dazzling new novel from an award-winning writer. With her mastery of the perfect detail, Francesca Kay explores a mind under pressure and the compelling power of imagination.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49759515017489,"sku":"GOR007751378","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49975544086801,"sku":"GOR008590134","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50808662950161,"sku":"GOR008095118","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0571322522.jpg?v=1751426891"},{"product_id":"translation-of-the-bones-book-francesca-kay-9781451636819","title":"The Translation of the Bones","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50384486727953,"sku":"CIN1451636814G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50921244754193,"sku":"GOR009514720","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B00BQEJRXK.jpg?v=1750827330"},{"product_id":"translation-of-the-bones-book-francesca-kay-9781451636826","title":"Translation of the Bones","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51027124388113,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51027127402769,"sku":"NIN9781451636826","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51737845235985,"sku":"CIN1451636822G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53374953783569,"sku":"GOR014886599","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1451636822.jpg?v=1750988236"},{"product_id":"long-room-book-francesca-kay-9781941040454","title":"The Long Room","description":"\u003cp\u003eLondon. December 1981. The IRA is on the attack, a cold war is being waged, another war is just over the horizon, and Stephen Donaldson spends his days listening. When he first joined the Institute, he expected to encounter glamorous, high-risk espionage. Instead he gets the tape-recorded conversations of ancient Communists and ineffectual revolutionaries--until the day he is assigned a new case: the ultra-secret PHOENIX, a suspected internal leak. The monotony of Stephen's routine is broken, but it's not PHOENIX who captures his imagination; it's the target's wife, Helen. Beset by isolation and loneliness, Stephen becomes dangerously obsessed with Helen, risking his job to keep his fragile connection to her and inadvertently setting himself up for a fall that will forever change his life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e  With compassion and tenderness and moments of unexpected humor, Francesca Kay charts the way in which imagination, projection, and desire overwhelm the paucity of Stephen's life and identity. As beautiful as it is intense, The Long Room explores a mind under pressure and the wilder cravings of the heart. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51334688506129,"sku":"CIN1941040454G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1941040454.jpg?v=1765446821"},{"product_id":"book-of-days-book-francesca-kay-9781800753518","title":"The Book of Days","description":"'At least that post-Reformation sovereignty of the word still yields novels as richly imagined and skilfully crafted as this' The Spectator   Longlisted for the 2025 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction  Longlisted in the 2024 HWA Crown Awards   ANNO DOMINI 1546.   In a manor house in England a young woman feels the walls are closing around her, while her dying husband is obsessed by his vision of a chapel where prayers will be said for his immortal soul. As the days go by and the chapel takes shape, the outside world starts to intrude. But as the old ways are replaced by the new, the people of the village sense a dangerous freedom …   Reader Reviews   ‘A must read … Characters that one cares about, beautifully structured, a real page turner’   ‘A jewel of a book’   ‘Beautifully written’   ‘Atmospheric and compelling'","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51632341614865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51632341975313,"sku":"NGR9781800753518","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51632342106385,"sku":"GOR014293445","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52137885892881,"sku":"GOR014494117","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52733923885329,"sku":"GOR014604850","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52743240614161,"sku":"NIN9781800753518","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52946858705169,"sku":"CIN1800753519G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53367993663761,"sku":"GOR014882625","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1800753519.jpg?v=1762250899"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-francesca-kay.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}