Review
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“Delirious storytelling backfilled with this much
intelligence is a rare and happy …Spufford’s resources are
implausibly deep. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge said of Shakespeare,
the fellow is myriad-minded.” —Dwight Garner, The New York
Times
"Francis Spufford has one of the most original minds in
contemporary literature." —Nick
Hornby
“One is drawn ineluctably into the world of colonial New York
from the first sentence of Golden Hill. Wonderfully written and
entertaining.” —Kevin Baker
“Admirably eccentric… The boisterous plot is perfectly in keeping
with its mid-18th century setting… This wonderful novel concludes
with one further revelation, one that will make you reflect once
again what a gloriously tricky fellow this Francis Spufford is.”
—Boston Globe
“Francis Spufford’s fiction début is a fast-paced romp, but it
keeps its eyes on the moral conundrums of America…[He is] an
author capable of making any topic, however unlikely, at once
fascinating and amusing. Golden Hill is both.” —The New
Yorker
“A virtuoso literary performance.” —Booklist, starred
review
“A successful homage to the great master of the picaresque novel,
Henry Fielding.” —Library Journal, starred review
“Recounting this picaresque rale with serious undertones,
Spufford adeptly captures 18th-century commercial practices and
linguistic peculiarities as well as pre-Revolutionary Manhattan’s
cultural hodgepodge…readers are rewarded with a feast of
language, character, local color, and historical detail.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Addictively readable.” —Mark Haddon
“Francis Spufford has long been one of my favourite writers of
non-fiction; he is now becoming a favourite writer of fiction as
well. Golden Hill is a meticulously crafted and brilliantly
written novel that is both an affectionate homage to the 18th
century novel and a taut and thoughtful tale.” —Iain Pears
“I loved this book so much. Golden Hill wears its research with
incredible insouciance and grace; a rollicking picaresque, it is
threaded through with darkness but has a heart of gold.”—Jo
Baker
“Marvelous. A vivid re-creation of colonial New York, in which
the adventures of Mr. Smith, who may be a charlatan or a hero,
make for a page turner, with an unexpected and unusually
satisfying ending.” —C. J. Sansom
“Sparkling…A first-rate entertainment with a rich historical feel
and some delightful twists.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Golden Hill is a novel of gloriously capacious humanity,
thick-woven with life in all its oddness and familiarity, a novel
of such joy it leaves you beaming, and such seriousness that it
asks to be read again and again ... this novel is verifiable
gold.” —Sunday Telegraph (UK)
“The intoxicating effect of Golden Hill is much more than an
experiment in form. [Spufford] has created a complete world,
employing his archivist skills to the great advantage of his
novel ... This is a book born of patience, of knowledge accrued
and distilled over decades, a style honed by practice. There are
single scenes here more illuminating, more lovingly wrought, than
entire books.” —Financial Times (UK)
“Like a newly discovered novel by Henry Fielding with extra
material by Martin Scorsese. Why it works so well is largely down
to Spufford's superb re-creation of New York ... His writing
crackles with energy and glee, and when Smith's secret is finally
revealed it is hugely satisfying on every level. For its payoff
alone Golden Hill deserves a big shiny star.” —The Times (UK)
“Splendidly entertaining and ingenious ... Throughout Golden
Hill, Spufford creates vivid, painterly scenes of street and
salon life, yet one never feels as though a historical detail has
been inserted just because he knew about it. Here is deep
research worn refreshingly lightly ... a first-class period
entertainment.” —Guardian (UK)
“Paying tribute to writers such as Fielding, Francis Spufford's
creation exudes a zesty, pin-sharp contemporaneity ... colonial
New York takes palpable shape in his dazzlingly visual, pacy and
cleverly plotted novel.” —Daily Mail (UK)
“Golden Hill shows a level of showmanship and skill which seems
more like a crowning achievement than a debut . [Spufford] brings
his people and situations to life with glancing ease ... They all
live and breathe with conviction ... His descriptive powers are
amazing ... Spufford's extraordinary visual imagination and
brilliant pacing seems to owe more to the movies than anything
else.” —Evening Standard (UK)
“The best 18th century novel since the 18th century.” —BBC Radio
4
“The entire flavor, tone, and prose of the book make this an
exceptional read whose pages practically flew by.” —Historical
Novel Society
“There’s more life and variety in a single page of Francis
Spufford’s prose than there is in many full-length books.”
—Commonweal
“With Golden Hill, Spufford adds another genre to an already
impressive résumé.” —Christian Science Monitor
“Rich in authentic detail, energized by crackling dialogue, and
flushed with lyrical grace…Golden Hill is a stunning evocation of
a town before it boomed into a metropolis.” —Minneapolis Star
Tribune
“Golden Hill is a novel of place, and its richness of description
and 18th century expression beggars the imagination. It is an
extraordinary re-creation.” —The Buffalo
News
“An immensely pleasurable novel by British author Francis
Spufford that will charm New Yorkers acquainted with their city’s
history and anyone who loves a well-told story…Read it for
Spufford’s brilliant storytelling, pitch-perfect ear for dialogue
and gift for re-creating a vanished time.” —Mary Ann Gwinn,
Newsday
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About the Author
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Francis Spufford is the author of five highly
praised books of nonfiction. His first book, I May Be Some Time,
won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Nonfiction Book of 1996,
the Banff ain Book Prize, and a Somerset Maugham Award. It
was followed by The Child That Books Built, Backroom Boys, Red
Plenty (which was translated into nine languages), and most
recently, Unapologetic. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths
College and lives near Cambridge, England. Golden Hill is his
first novel.
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