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Title: Bleaker House
Subtitle: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World
Author: Nell Stevens
Narrator: Nell Stevens
Format: Unabridged
Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
Language: English
Release date: 06-01-17
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd
Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians
Publisher's Summary:
When Nell Stevens was given the opportunity to spend three months in a location of her choice in order to write her novel, she was determined to rid herself of all distractions. So Nell decided to travel to Bleaker Island (official population: two) in the Falklands, where she would write 2,500 words a day.
But Bleaker House is not that novel. Instead this is a book about a young woman realising that the way to writing fiction doesn't necessarily lie in total solitude and a clear plan. Nor does it lie in a daily ration of 1,085 calories, no means of contacting the outside world and a slow descent towards something that feels worryingly like madness....
Hilariously funny, painfully honest and beautifully observed, Bleaker House is part memoir, part travelogue, part story collection. It is an exploration of the narrow spaces between real life and fiction and, in the end, a book about failing to write a novel but finally becoming a writer.
Critic Reviews:
"My favourite debut of 2017...as funny as it is poignant." (Lena Dunham)
Members Reviews:
In a class by itself
This book breaks lots of rules but showcases the author's impressive skills. I'd like to read more from her, i.e, any of the stories within this story carried through to the end. In a class by itself. Kudos, Nell.
Worth reading.
I found it interesting to see how she dealt with the weather and the isolation on the island. I couldn't help but wonder what food I would have taken with me.
Great read!
Loved this - a real insight into how hard it is to write a book! Engaging and kept you wanting to know what happened next.
A PUSHMEPULLYOU KIND OF A BOOK
This is Stevensâs first book but she was a finalist for the 2011 Elle magazine writing talent contest and runner-up in two writing contests (one memoir, the other short fiction) in 2014-15. Combine that with a bachelorâs degree in English and creative writing (Warwick), study at Harvard (Arabic and Comparative Literature) and an MFA in fiction at Boston University, where she received a graduate fiction award, and you have a formidable combination. Oh, did I mention she just completed her Ph.D. in Victorian literature at Kingâs College London?
This book is an odd but appealing join: itâs part memoir, part travel book and part fiction, and it is inspired by Dickensâs very odd but masterly novel, Bleak House. Stevensâ book narrates her trip to the Falkland Islands, located off the southernmost tip of South America, and in particular her six-week stay on Bleaker Island (serendipitous name!), a desolate pile of rocks and dirt eight miles square, inhabited during her stay in the winter (winters arenât nice down there), aside from Nell, by only the occasional sea lion or seal, about a thousand sheep and several cows, a colony of gentoo penguins and countless other birds, including one large aggressive raptor called the caracara (itâs characterized on the website allaboutbirds as âa tropical falcon version of a vultureâ). There are no trees. The wind blows. A lot. And if lack of sunlight affects your moods, prepare for mood swings.
She went there on a grant, her hope that the enforced solitude and straitened regimen would force her to be the novelist she aspired to be.