26a: A Novel
By Diana Evans
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A hauntingly beautiful, wickedly funny, and devastatingly moving novel of innocence and dreams that announces the arrival of a major new talent to the literary scene
In the attic room at 26 Waifer Avenue, identical twins Georgia and Bessi Hunter share nectarines and forge their identities, while escaping from the sadness and danger that inhabit the floors below. But innocence lasts for only so long—and dreams, no matter how vivid and powerful, cannot slow the relentless incursion of the real world.
Diana Evans
Diana Evans has worked as a journalist and arts critic, contributing to Marie Claire, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, and The Independent. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of anthologies. She lives in London, England.
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Reviews for 26a
115 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I didn’t really understand this book when I first read it as a teenager. Now that I’m an adult in a close relationship with depression, I realize that I always needed it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A truly poignant and beautiful tale from Diana Evans. An excellent debut and worthy winner of the Orange prize and being short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award. This is not a new book having been published in 2005 and sat on my shelf for far too long. Ms Evans has gone on to write The Wonder which I have also read and enjoyed.We are given insight into the backgrounds of Aubrey and Ida the parents in this story. Aubrey, a sensitive boy, like his mother in character, feels an outsider with his father and two older brothers. He suffers merciless teasing at their expense and is pampered by his lonely mother whose tonic is a glass of sherry when things get tough. Ida is Nigerian and comes from a family with superstition and tales. A girl whose father knows no different but to find his daughter a husband, however, Ida is feisty and fights for what she wants. She meets Aubrey in Lagos and their lives become entwined. However, it is a short-lived happiness once they move to England and Ida suffers homesickness and retreats into her own world. Aubrey becomes even more conflicted displaying behaviours seen in his father combined with the insecurities of his mother. These are deep character portrayals which add to the story, giving the reader an understanding of the why's and wherefores of what is going on in this family.It is a story of suffering, loss, betrayal, love, sharing, a real insight into what it must be like to be identical twins. I have no knowledge of identical twins. Both sets of twins in our family are cousins, mixed sex twins and I have not had conversations with them to ask or gain an understanding of what it must be like to be a half, whether they feel a connection that binds them together. Sadly, one of these sets did part all too young in sad and final circumstances. I have no idea how the living twin feels, how much she misses her brother.It is not only the concept or storyline, it is the language, description and most importantly the storytelling that I love about this book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found the story of the girls' growing up in London uninteresting, with the exception of their time in Nigeria. I think I requested this book because of its focus on the one twin's depression; but I wanted that to be the main focus of the book, not only the last bit.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sweet sad spiritual magical story of twins growing up near London. Loved the writing, and phrases such as when the characters "touch eyes".... I'm not one to mark up a book but found myself wanting to highlight pieces of this one.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Disappointing. This is the second Orange Award book I have read, and I'm starting to wonder if my literary tastes are simply so American than I cannot share a British literary sensibility.This dreamy, half-magical/half-brutal novel follows identical twins Bessi and Georgia from pre-birth to young adulthood. Their twin-bond is so powerful that it creates an idiosyncratic universe shared only by two; a source of joy and wonder at first, but later an increasing source of pain and wounds. Evans is a skillful writer who evokes the girls' dream-world with ease, and she is equally skilled at painting the real world they live in: their depressed mother, alcoholic father, the struggles of the small family. I wanted to like the book, because I liked some things about it. But ultimately, the whole magical bond between the twins - the whole point of the novel - became simply tedious for me. I liked the characters less and less, and cared less and less about what happened to them; by the end, I was rolling my eyes. Never good.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There was a lot of very skilled writing in this book - particularly the middle sections, when the twins were in their teens - I particularly loved the forced 'coolness' of the two suitors Errol and Dean ('What ya sayin'' !!!), and the evocation of Nigeria was masterly. I also admired the way the author very subtly showed the differences between the twins - hardly any at first, and gradually widening to a gulf. They were set within a believable family - their father Aubrey 'had come to realise that there was a part of him that was a stranger to the world and everything in it, and was therefore supremely incapable of succeeding as a human being'. Brilliant - I sympathised utterly. The author signals from an early stage the likely outcome of the novel, but in such a way that you aren't entirely sure how it will pan out and want to read on.Things I didn't like as much - the early chapters where the twins were very young. A personal thing, really, child's-view whimsy ('Girls with umbrellas skipped across the wallpaper and Georgia and Bessi could hear them laughing') tend to have me reaching for the sick bag. The last chapter.....some elements of it were great (JP and his acquisitive whiskers were a particular highlight), but given that most of the novel is rooted firmly in the real world, elements of this final part required the reader to take a step sideways into the metaphysical which I wasn't sure I was ready for. The last chapter also sets out on a headlong rush of events which seems odd given the evidence of the reader's own eye - there are hardly any pages left! Trying to decide what the overall theme of the novel is - growing up, multi-culturalism, being twins - I have to conclude that it is being twins, though the twins' Nigerian heritage, and the folklore of that country, is an important element of the story. In a way, this made it a little less enjoyable for me as its twinny themes are less relevant to the majority of us who are not twins.I almost defied the blurb on the back - by reaching the very end without shedding a tear. Almost, but not quite.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I just love this book. It's amazing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There's something so interesting about twins, and this book plays on that something without being gimmicky. The characterization is great. I also enjoyed the coming of age aspects of the book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a story of twins growing up in London. The plot is pretty average -- the usual family tensions and the angst of being a teenager. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, though, and got better at towards the end.