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Devotion
What happens when you lose the life you thought you had?
258 pages, Paperback
First published April 9, 2008
59 people want to read
About the author
Nell Leyshon
22 books207 followersNell Leyshon is a British playwright and novelist born in Glastonbury, Somerset. At the age of eleven, she moved to a small farming village on the edge of the Somerset Levels. Her first attempts at novels were with a baby on her lap. She burned a lot of the early writing, and finally started on Black Dirt, which was her first published novel.
While struggling to write prose, she got a commission from BBC Radio 4 to write a radio drama, "Milk", which won the Richard Imison Award for best first radio play. Her second play, The Farm, was runner up for the Meyer Whitworth Award.
Her novel, Black Dirt was published in 2005 and was long-listed for the Orange Prize and runner up for the Commonwealth Prize.
Her third novel, The Colour of Milk, was published in May 2012 and has won the Prix de l’Union Interalliee and was nominated for the Prix Femina in France and was was voted the book of the year in Spain. Her most recent novel, "Memoirs of a Dipper" was published in 2015.
While struggling to write prose, she got a commission from BBC Radio 4 to write a radio drama, "Milk", which won the Richard Imison Award for best first radio play. Her second play, The Farm, was runner up for the Meyer Whitworth Award.
Her novel, Black Dirt was published in 2005 and was long-listed for the Orange Prize and runner up for the Commonwealth Prize.
Her third novel, The Colour of Milk, was published in May 2012 and has won the Prix de l’Union Interalliee and was nominated for the Prix Femina in France and was was voted the book of the year in Spain. Her most recent novel, "Memoirs of a Dipper" was published in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 16, 2018
I very much admired Nell Leyshon's The Colour of Milk upon reading it a few years ago, and was eager to read more of her work. It has taken me a while, but I was able to find a copy of her second novel, 2008's Devotion, online, and eagerly read it whilst on holiday during the summer.
Devotion sounded more traditional in terms of its plot and setting than the aforementioned The Colour of Milk. The Observer has described it as 'a moving tale of a family falling apart', and author Catherine O'Flynn writes that it is 'a compelling study of a family cast adrift; written with subtlety and sensitivity, this deceptively simple tale pulls the reader closer with each page.' The Times Literary Supplement says that Devotion questions 'how we understand situations and feelings, and how we read the story of ourselves.'
Rachel, the wife of Andrew and mother of two girls named Grace and Tilly, decides at the outset of the novel that her marriage is no longer working, and asks Andrew to leave. At this point, she feels as though she is in control, and knows what she is doing, 'but Rachel is wrong, and her decision has consequences no one could have foreseen.'
The entire story is told from all four of their perspectives, an approach which adds an awful lot of depth. Tilly, the youngest family member at six years old, is the one who struggles the most with the decision, not really understanding what has happened, or what has caused it. At the end of her first piece, she says: 'His books are still here even though Dad isn't. I watched him drive off with his car full of insects and suitcases and books, but I don't know where he went. Teenage daughter Grace is the one who discovers quite how quickly her mother has moved on after going to deliver a cup of tea to her bedroom one morning: 'My mother's dyed red hair was spread over the pillow. Her skin was tanned and she wore her silver bangles on her arm which was draped over him. Her arm, over him. This person I had never seen before.'
Devotion is a highly immersive contemporary novel. One quickly gets a feel for the characters; the girls particularly have a vividness and vivacity to them, and their voices feel like realistic ones. Leyshon is incredibly perceptive, and so understanding of emotions; she notes how each character changes as the novel goes on, and how they are forced to change by others. She demonstrates the ways in which people can protect others, and also how they can put them at their most vulnerable, and their most alone. The feeling of unease which begins to creep in has been placed so well.
It is tempting to speed through this thoughtful and searching novel to its cataclysmic ending, merely in order to see what happens, but this is a novel to savour. Leyshon's writing has a quiet beauty to it, particularly with regard to her descriptions of the natural world. The highly accomplished Devotion is a book which I likened to Ali Smith's wonderful The Accidental as I was reading it, and I hope it is one which many readers discover sooner rather than later.
Devotion sounded more traditional in terms of its plot and setting than the aforementioned The Colour of Milk. The Observer has described it as 'a moving tale of a family falling apart', and author Catherine O'Flynn writes that it is 'a compelling study of a family cast adrift; written with subtlety and sensitivity, this deceptively simple tale pulls the reader closer with each page.' The Times Literary Supplement says that Devotion questions 'how we understand situations and feelings, and how we read the story of ourselves.'
Rachel, the wife of Andrew and mother of two girls named Grace and Tilly, decides at the outset of the novel that her marriage is no longer working, and asks Andrew to leave. At this point, she feels as though she is in control, and knows what she is doing, 'but Rachel is wrong, and her decision has consequences no one could have foreseen.'
The entire story is told from all four of their perspectives, an approach which adds an awful lot of depth. Tilly, the youngest family member at six years old, is the one who struggles the most with the decision, not really understanding what has happened, or what has caused it. At the end of her first piece, she says: 'His books are still here even though Dad isn't. I watched him drive off with his car full of insects and suitcases and books, but I don't know where he went. Teenage daughter Grace is the one who discovers quite how quickly her mother has moved on after going to deliver a cup of tea to her bedroom one morning: 'My mother's dyed red hair was spread over the pillow. Her skin was tanned and she wore her silver bangles on her arm which was draped over him. Her arm, over him. This person I had never seen before.'
Devotion is a highly immersive contemporary novel. One quickly gets a feel for the characters; the girls particularly have a vividness and vivacity to them, and their voices feel like realistic ones. Leyshon is incredibly perceptive, and so understanding of emotions; she notes how each character changes as the novel goes on, and how they are forced to change by others. She demonstrates the ways in which people can protect others, and also how they can put them at their most vulnerable, and their most alone. The feeling of unease which begins to creep in has been placed so well.
It is tempting to speed through this thoughtful and searching novel to its cataclysmic ending, merely in order to see what happens, but this is a novel to savour. Leyshon's writing has a quiet beauty to it, particularly with regard to her descriptions of the natural world. The highly accomplished Devotion is a book which I likened to Ali Smith's wonderful The Accidental as I was reading it, and I hope it is one which many readers discover sooner rather than later.
June 5, 2013
Discovered this in a crate of books underneath my bed, bought and unread! I was surprised to see it was an earlier novel by the author of "The Colour of Milk" which I read last year, loved and found affecting and quietly devastating.
This is another slim volume that packs a similar punch. It is likewise strange and dreamlike in some parts, gritty and visceral in others. It's certainly a quick read that hooks you in and effectively incorporates the device of using different voices to relay the story.
It leaves you thinking and pondering after you close the last page, and that's always a good thing.
This is another slim volume that packs a similar punch. It is likewise strange and dreamlike in some parts, gritty and visceral in others. It's certainly a quick read that hooks you in and effectively incorporates the device of using different voices to relay the story.
It leaves you thinking and pondering after you close the last page, and that's always a good thing.
April 26, 2015
I picked this up in a Waterstones 'lucky dip'. thankfully it turned out to be a lucky dip!
A very sad and moving read. Very well written.
A very sad and moving read. Very well written.
October 1, 2025
I found this a truly depressing read and struggled to finish it but in a way that made it a very good read because it really affected me. The book is very well written, I was immediately drawn to the characters lives and cared about them. I didn't really like the device with the insects, initially I was intrigued but then it felt like it was interrupting the flow of the story. I feel that this author really got inside what it feels to have your life upended out of nowhere. My heart went out to Andrew as he tried and failed to come to terms with his life falling apart. But I was also angry with him and his wife for their almost wilful neglect of their children, especially their emotional wellbeing. And then to the ending, it was difficult and terribly sad.
So I can't say I enjoyed this book but I appreciate that it is a powerful, impactful read.
So I can't say I enjoyed this book but I appreciate that it is a powerful, impactful read.
March 19, 2011
I loved this novel. The author depicts the unravelling of a marriage with heartbreaking clarity, and the breakdown in personal identity that all too often goes with it. Despite bleak subject matter, I found it full of warmth and human understanding. Moving, empathetic and illuminating - it's well worth a read.
May 31, 2009
Moving and emotional read of a family's break up.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews