The Dark Flood Rises
Margaret Drabble
“Most of the time she thinks that she can work it out for herself in the end. The end is nigh but she’ll keep on trying. It’s not too late”
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The new novel from literary great Margaret Drabble is by turns dark and joyous, hilarious and heartbreaking, and asks us what makes a good life, and a good death
NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017: ‘masterly’
GUARDIAN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: ‘An absolute tour de force’
Fran may be old but she’s not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives restlessly around the country and lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. And as each of them - her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher and earnest daughter Poppet - seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Will they be waving or drowning when the end comes? By turns joyous and profound, darkly sardonic and moving, The Dark Flood Rises questions what makes a good life, and a good death.
“An absolute tour de force”
Linda Grant
guardian, Best Books Of The Year
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“Erudite, beautifully written, funny, tragic”
daily Mail
“Masterly”
new York Times, 100 Notable Books Of 2017
“Darkly witty and exhilarating”
the Times
“Her distinctive narrative voice and soaring prose remain electrifying”
telegraph
Margaret Drabble
Dame Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield in 1939 and was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of eighteen novels including A Summer Bird-Cage, The Millstone, The Peppered Moth, The Red Queen, The Sea Lady and most recently, the highly acclaimed The Pure Gold Baby. She has also written biographies, screenplays and was the editor of the Oxford Companion to English Literature. She was appointed CBE in 1980, and made DBE in the 2008 Honours list. She was also awarded the 2011 Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature. She is married to the biographer Michael Holroyd.
“An absolute tour de force about old age and dying” – Linda Grant picks Margaret Drabble’s The Dark Flood Rises as one of the best books of the year in the Guardian.