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Rough Music

Published
May 2001
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
384

About This Book

Beautifully written and deeply compassionate, Rough Music is a novel of one family at two defining points in time. Seamlessly alternating between the present day and a summer thirty years past, its twin stories unfold at a cottage along the eastern coast of England.

Will Pagett receives an unexpected gift on his fortieth birthday, two weeks at a perfect beach house in Cornwall. Seeking some distance from the married man with whom he's having an affair, he invites his aging mother and father to share his holiday, knowing the sun and sea will be a welcome change for. But the cottage and the stretch of sand before it seem somehow familiar and memories of a summer long ago begin to surface.

Thirty-two years earlier. A young married couple and their eight year-old son begin two idyllic weeks at a beach house in Cornwall. But the sudden arrival of unknown American relatives has devastating consequences, turning what was to be a moment of reconciliation into an act of betrayal that will cast a lengthy shadow.

As Patrick Gale masterfully unspools these parallel stories, we see their subtle and surprising reflections in each other and discover how the forgotten dramas of childhood are reenacted throughout our lives.

Deftly navigating the terrain between humor and tragedy, Patrick Gale has written an unforgettable novel about the lies that adults tell and the small acts of treason that children can commit. Rough Music gracefully illuminates the merciful tricks of memory and the courage with which we continue to assert our belief in love and happiness.

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Paperback

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Trade Paperback
Jun 2002 Ballantine ISBN 0345442377
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Apr 2018 Headline (UK) ISBN 1472255402
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
First Edition May 2001 Ballantine ISBN 0345442369
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eBook

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eBook
Jan 2010 Ballantine ISBN B0034N7JK4
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Jan 2010 Tinder Press ISBN 1472255399
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eBook
Feb 2010 Random House ISBN 0307490319
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Audio

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Audible
Jul 2017 Patrick Gale ISBN B073VX7LQ2
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Audible
Apr 2018 Tinder Press ISBN B07C839JYC
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