The Heart of the Country by Fay Weldon

The Heart of the Country by Fay Weldon

Men have deserted women often, and perhaps Natalie Harris, whose husband ran off with the local carnival queen, should not have been surprised. But there she was - charming, well-meaning, and well-dressed - suddenly without gas to drive her children to school or money to pay their tuition.

True. Natalie had had a lover for a number of years, but they saw each other only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Still, she felt wronged and helpless when her husband left her; she was the kind of woman other men, attached to other women, liked to help - on their own terms, of course.

The Heart of the Country is about the decidedly unsentimental education of Natalie Harris. Without husband, without home, thrown on the mercy of bank managers and welfare officers, she depends for enlightenment upon long-suffering Sonia who has been abandoned before. But what can Sonia do in the face of Natalie's own nature and the procession of men only too ready to take advantage of her appealing vulnerability?

A cunning satirist, Fay Weldon tickles the myth of the suburban countryside as a place where serenity reigns and neighbors are kindhearted. But if the heart of the country is in upheaval, chaos can be exhilarating. And as Weldon exposes the foibles of the human spirit, she manages to celebrate its wonderful elasticity. Involuntary though it may be, Natalie Harris's education is not all to her disadvantage.

Fay Weldon was raised in a household of women in New Zealand and produced four sons of her own, as if to balance the gender count. After earning degrees in economics and psychology at the University of Edinburgh, she survived a decade of odd jobs and hard times, then began writing film and television scripts and fiction. Among her 18 novels and short-story collections are Trouble, Life Force, The Cloning of Joanna May, Darcy's Utopia, The Shrapnel Academy, The Life and Loves of a She-devil, Leader of the Band, Puffball, and The Heart of the Country, winner of the 1989 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Fay Weldon lives in London and Somerset, England.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780091670900
ISBN 10	009167090X
Title	The Heart of the Country
Author	Fay Weldon
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Cornerstone
Year published	1987-02-19
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.