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Glenfarron
"Glenfarron" is the tale of a rugged Scottish Highland landscape, and of the impact of three generations of Polish aircrew at a military hospital in the 1940s, a young Glaswegian couple who inherit a remote property in the 1970s, and African diplomats visiting Scotland in an attempt to recover stolen artefacts in 2006. These three stories overlap in a web of hauntings, illicit love, and a farcical battle to protect cultural heritage.
This is fine prose, filled with highly evocative descriptions of Scotland mixed with desperately poignant story-telling, as well as some bizarre comedy. It is a remarkable it of writing.
"Glenfarron" is Jonathan Falla's third novel after the hugely acclaimed "Blue Poppies" (concerning a radio operator caught in the Chinese invasion of Tibet) and "Poor Mercy" (concerning aid workers in Sudan). Of "Glenfarron" the reviewer in The Scotsman "An intelligent, well written and ambitious book. Falla is no longer to be described as a promising novelist, but as an accomplished one. Glenfarron is a real achievement."
Of Falla's previous books, the critics have "A vivid, engrossing work of fiction" (The Guardian), "Saturated with loving detail, unpredictable and opulent" (Sunday Times), "Glacial and understated, Falla's prose has an almost mythical quality. Beautifully evocative and utterly engrossing." (Textualities).
This is fine prose, filled with highly evocative descriptions of Scotland mixed with desperately poignant story-telling, as well as some bizarre comedy. It is a remarkable it of writing.
"Glenfarron" is Jonathan Falla's third novel after the hugely acclaimed "Blue Poppies" (concerning a radio operator caught in the Chinese invasion of Tibet) and "Poor Mercy" (concerning aid workers in Sudan). Of "Glenfarron" the reviewer in The Scotsman "An intelligent, well written and ambitious book. Falla is no longer to be described as a promising novelist, but as an accomplished one. Glenfarron is a real achievement."
Of Falla's previous books, the critics have "A vivid, engrossing work of fiction" (The Guardian), "Saturated with loving detail, unpredictable and opulent" (Sunday Times), "Glacial and understated, Falla's prose has an almost mythical quality. Beautifully evocative and utterly engrossing." (Textualities).
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First published October 14, 2008
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About the author
Jonathan Falla
24 books8 followersJonathan Falla was born in 1954 in Jamaica, where his father lectured in English Literature at the University of the West Indies. The family returned to England a year later on a boat laden with bananas.
During the 1990s Jonathan was writing drama. A BBC feature film, The Hummingbird Tree, was shot in Trinidad with a local crew, and went on to win several awards. This helped Jonathan to gain the first Fulbright/T.E.B.Clarke Fellowship to study at the film school of the University of Southern California. The script that he wrote there concerned the Chinese occupation of Tibet. It was never filmed, but became his first published novel, Blue Poppies. Other drama productions included Down the Tubes, a play for community theatre in Edinburgh, and River of Dreams, a musical for children with composer Gordon Murch. He was also translator and scriptwriter for Diriamba!, a co-production between the Edinburgh Theatre Workshop and Teatro Nixtayolero of Nicaragua which won a ‘Fringe First’ on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Five other novels followed: Poor Mercy, Glenfarron, and The Physician of Sanlucar, The White Porcupine, and Good News from Riga.
Jonathan has also written wide-ranging non-fiction, including an edited war memoir of his father, The Luck of the Devil, a collection of essays and travel writing, Beyond the Roadblocks, and an illustrated memoir of the 'hippy trail' to India in 1974, Saama: Innocents in Asia. His account of a year spent with the Karen rebels in Burma, True Love & Bartholomew, is part ethnography, part autobiography, and part historical study, and is widely recognised as a major contribution to the understanding of ethnic conflicts in Asia.
Jonathan is currently an arts lecturer for the UK's Open University, and for ten years has been director of the St Andrews University summer school in creative writing.
During the 1990s Jonathan was writing drama. A BBC feature film, The Hummingbird Tree, was shot in Trinidad with a local crew, and went on to win several awards. This helped Jonathan to gain the first Fulbright/T.E.B.Clarke Fellowship to study at the film school of the University of Southern California. The script that he wrote there concerned the Chinese occupation of Tibet. It was never filmed, but became his first published novel, Blue Poppies. Other drama productions included Down the Tubes, a play for community theatre in Edinburgh, and River of Dreams, a musical for children with composer Gordon Murch. He was also translator and scriptwriter for Diriamba!, a co-production between the Edinburgh Theatre Workshop and Teatro Nixtayolero of Nicaragua which won a ‘Fringe First’ on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Five other novels followed: Poor Mercy, Glenfarron, and The Physician of Sanlucar, The White Porcupine, and Good News from Riga.
Jonathan has also written wide-ranging non-fiction, including an edited war memoir of his father, The Luck of the Devil, a collection of essays and travel writing, Beyond the Roadblocks, and an illustrated memoir of the 'hippy trail' to India in 1974, Saama: Innocents in Asia. His account of a year spent with the Karen rebels in Burma, True Love & Bartholomew, is part ethnography, part autobiography, and part historical study, and is widely recognised as a major contribution to the understanding of ethnic conflicts in Asia.
Jonathan is currently an arts lecturer for the UK's Open University, and for ten years has been director of the St Andrews University summer school in creative writing.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 25, 2008
A great description of life in a small community and the effects of and on incomers.It covers a great range of human feelings love,hate,sorrow,joy into an easy to read story. Brilliant.
Displaying 1 of 1 review