Violet Hetherington has taken the rash step of joining a transatlantic cruise to New York to visit Edwin, an old friend. As she makes the six-day crossing, she relives the traumatic events that led to her losing Edwin’s friendship and abandoning her career as a poet for the safety of marriage and domesticity.
Despite her natural reserve, she meets a rich variety of passengers traveling with her, who affect her understanding of her own past. Most significant, she meets Dino, the dancing host, whose motives in befriending Vi are shady but who teaches her to ballroom dance and inadvertently helps her to recover from her past.
Moving between the late sixties and the present day, Dancing Backwards is written with the lightness of touch and psychological insight that characterize Salley Vickers’s acclaimed work. This bittersweet novel is subtle, poignant, and wonderfully entertaining.
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'If you enjoy the work of Marilynne Robinson, Penelope Fitzgerald, James Salter or Anita Brookner, you should be reading Vickers. All these authors reflect, with grace and gravity, on life's moments of sorrowful epiphany.' Michael Dirda, Washington Post
Praise for ‘Instances of the Number 3’:
'Salley Vickers is a remarkable optimist. She shows that happiness can be found even after it seems to have died.' David Sexton, Evening Standard
'Gentleness of perception and sharpness of intellect...sustains you long after the last page.' Bel Mooney, The Times
'Admirable. Salley Vickers has a way with persuasive characters and crisp narrative.' Penelope Lively, Independent
'Vickers writes sympathetically about the bereaved women as they remake their lives.' Margaret Walter, Sunday Times
'Studded with observations and asides that stop you in your tracks.' Julie Wheelwright, Scotland on Sunday
'The reader glides through it effortlessly. The plot is simple, yet has an amazing amount of narrative power. Vickers' second novel confirms that she will have a long and outstanding career.' Martyn Goff, The Times
'Lovely. Distinctive grace.' Murrough O'Brien, Daily Telegraph
'Her voice rings true and strong.' Jane Gardam, Spectator
Praise for Miss Garnet’s Angel:
'Subtle, unexpected and haunting.' Penelope Fitzgerald
'Very kind, very funny.' John Bayley
'Writes like a haunted angel.' The Times
'Rich, complex and haunting...she makes the ancient story as riveting as Miss Garnet's own adventures.' Sunday Times
'The sort of novel I really enjoy.' John Bayley
Reveals itself as a surprising exploration of the mysteries of imagination and faith.' Joanna Trollope, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year
'A refreshing, gentle story.' Anita Brookner, Spectator Books of the Year
'A subtle, witty tale.' John de Falbe, Spectator Books of the Year
'Delightfully affecting.' Julia Neuberger, Independent Books of the Year
'Original and delightful.' Woman's Journal
'It is a triumph.' John Julius Norwich
Salley Vickers has worked as a dancer, an artist’s model, a university professor of literature, and a psychoanalyst. She now writes full-time.
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