Mother's Boy
Patrick Gale
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
4.14
· 14 ratings · 416 pages · Published: 01 Jan 2022
'Richly engaging' Spectator
A Radio 4 Serial Fiction Book of the Week
'A characteristically tender novel about a young man growing up in the shadow of one war and the whispers of the next' Observer
'A wonderful novel about relationships, particularly between a mother and son. A compelling read, beautifully crafted and sensitively written' Irish Examiner
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Laura, a laundress, meets her young husband when they are both placed in service in Teignmouth in 1914. They have a baby, Charles, but his father returns home from the trenches a damaged man, already ill with the tuberculosis that will soon leave Laura a widow.
As a new war looms, Charles signs up for the navy as a coder. His escape from the tight, gossipy confines of Launceston to a more colourful life in action sees him blossom, as he experiences the possibility of death, and the excitement - even terror - of a love that is as clandestine as his work.
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'Stands with the best queer literary fiction of a historical bent, illuminated as it is by Gale's devilish wit and talent for both social observation and intricacies of character' Sydney Morning Herald
'A wonderful novel - a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist' Mail on Sunday
'A deeply moving novel. The portrait of a complex relationship that constricted as much as it sustained is brilliantly done' The Tablet
Tagged as:
- historical fiction 3
- lgbtq+ 3
- historical 3
- literary fiction 3
- war/big battles 2
- 20th century 2
- men loving men 2
- world war II 2
- romantic love 1
- military, war & conflict 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- audiobook 2
- book 1
- adult fiction 1