Morningquest

Joan Aiken

17 May 2018
9781509878765
304 pages

Synopsis

'Eccentric and poignant with inevitable echoes of Austen as she goes for heightened emotion and rarefied beauty . . . suspend disbelief and you’ll fly through this world of sense and sensibility' Time Out

Aspiring young artist sixteen-year-old Pandora Crumbe, lonely and bored in her rural village, has been unwillingly taken for lunch with her eccentric neighbours The Morningquest family . . . when her mother dies suddenly at the table.

The Morninquests take Pandora under their wing – Sir Gilbert is a world famous conductor with an elegant wife and seven eccentric children, all highly talented in their own way. Pandora flourishes in their rambling country home and relishes the cultured and bohemian company. As her life moves with theirs to 60’s London, a Northern University, and finally to communist Prague, she uncovers scandals, tragedy, her own mother’s secrets, and finally the way to realise her own dreams.

From award winning author Joan Aiken, romantic suspense novel Morningquest is an intense and kaleidoscopic read, an epic rite of passage with a vast cast of exuberant characters who sweep you into their world.

Both buoyantly messy and thoroughly delightful – is centered on a large, wildly talented, intellectually playful family of internationally known musicians . . . Despite the helter-skelter plot directions: the pace, place, and talk are enchanting
Joan Aiken has always had a penchant for the exotic . . . eccentric and poignant with inevitable echoes of Austen as she goes for heightened emotion and rarefied beauty . . . suspend disbelief and you’ll fly through this world of sense and sensibility