SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sandor so violently unwelcome in her parents' home?

This is a novel about survival - both banal and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live.

Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise and tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.

The brilliant new novel by Orange Prize winner, Linda Grant, about the legacies of history, longlisted for both the Orange Prize, 2008 and the Man Booker Prize, 2008

About the Author
Linda Grant is author of four non-fiction books and eight novels. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000, the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage in 2006 and holds honorary doctorates from the University of York and Liverpool John Moores University. The Clothes on Their Backs was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and went on to win the South Bank Show Award; The Dark Circle was shortlisted for the 2017 Women's Prize for Fiction; A Stranger City won the 2000 Wingate Literary Prize. Linda Grant lives in London.

Reviews
** 'If you read only one novel this year, make sure it is The Clothes on Their Backs * SUNDAY EXPRESS *
** 'A beautifully written and truly moving book about the experience of growing up in Britain as a second generation immigrant * EXPRESS *
** 'It's a sublimely atmospheric and moving novel * LONDON PAPER *
** 'This is a vivid, enjoyable and consistently unexpected novel * THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *


Awards
Short-listed for Man Booker Prize 2008 (UK). Long-listed for Orange Prize 2008 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781844085422
Author Linda Grant
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 212g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 21mm