How It All Began

By Penelope Lively

Book Overview

A vibrant novel from Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively--a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect

When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends.
In this engaging, utterly absorbing and brilliantly told novel, Penelope Lively shows us how one random event can cause marriages to fracture and heal themselves, opportunities to appear and disappear, lovers who might never have met to find each other and entire lives to become irrevocably changed.

Funny, humane, touching, sly and sympathetic, How It All Began is a brilliant sleight of hand from an author at the top of her game.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143122649
• ISBN13: 9780143122647
• Release Date: November 2012
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Favorite book by an outstanding author

This book has the such appealing characters and Penelope Lively reveals them little by little with all their strengths and flaws. The book begins with an elderly teacher being mugged. Her injuries and recovery cause upheavals for better and for worse in the lives of eight other people. This novel is humorous, clever, a bit sad and totally heartwarming. I loved it so much that I bought copies for all the members of my book club so we could enjoy it together.