The Rain Before it Falls
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  • Published: 5 June 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141909295
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

The Rain Before it Falls

Formats & editions
Paperback
15 Aug 2023
EBook
5 Jun 2008
Audiobook
4 Jul 2019
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A mesmerizing study of human character from one of the masters of modern fiction

'What I want you to have, Imogen, above all, is a sense of your own history; a sense of where you come from, and of the forces that made you.'

Rosamund lies dying in her remote Shropshire home. But before she does so, she has one last task: to put on tape not just her own story but the story of the young blind girl, her cousin's granddaughter, who turned up mysteriously at her party all those years ago. This is a story of generations, of the relationships within a family - and of what goes to make a child.
  • Published: 5 June 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141909295
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
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About the author

Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His novels include Rotters, The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death and What a Carve Up!, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Itranger.The House of Sleep won the Writers' Guild Best Fiction Award for 1997.

Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham, UK, in 1961. He began writing at an early age. His first surviving story, a detective thriller called The Castle of Mystery, was written when he was eight. His first published novel was The Accidental Woman in 1987, but it was his fourth, What a Carve Up!, that established his reputation as one of England’s finest comic novelists, winning the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1985 and being translated into many languages. Seven bestselling novels and many other awards have followed, including the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for Like A Fiery Elephant, a biography of the experimental novelist, B. S. Johnson. Jonathan lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

Also by Jonathan Coe

Bournville
Mr Wilder and Me
Middle England
The Broken Mirror
Number 11
Loggerheads And Other Stories
Marginal Notes, Doubtful Statements
See all

Praise for The Rain Before it Falls

Spectacular, heartbreaking, beautifully written. Rosamund's story is one of the most extraordinary and compelling you will ever read. Impossible to put down, I loved every minute of it

Sunday Express

A sad, often very moving story of mothers and daughters

Guardian

Entirely compelling . . . the plot will keep you rapt . . . reminiscent of Ian McEwan at his most effective

New Statesman

A hauntingly melancholy tale of love and loss...a moving exploration of the inheritance of unhappiness, and the devestating consequences it can have for future generations

Daily Mail

Potent and melancholy, like a short, sad song

Guardian

A male writer who can enter such traditionally female territory and aquit himself with such aplomb

Sunday Telegraph