Incredibly evocative of the fens where this is set, the book is made up of complex intertwined stories: the history of the Atkinson family (who were brewers, hilarious bit about getting an entire town drunk for the Coronation), the story of Tom Crick growing up and the present day (or rather 80s when was written) story of Tom Crick as a history teacher, his tribulations with his class (especially Price, in his pale foundation) and with his wife who steals a baby. Living with the fear of history coming to an end (parallels here with the Atkinson family and Tom's own unravelling life), with the threat of nuclear war, Tom's class are not interested in the past so he starts to tell them stories of his own life. Enjoyed this.

This book will travel in a ray:

sarahmangan (UK, post UK/EU)
Icila (France, post anywhere)
Billbooks (Aus)
catsalive (Aus, post anywhere)
ULRK (Romania, post anywhere)
Souram (Switzerland, post anywhere)
bluezwuzl (Germany, post anywhere)
vvampiress4u4 (UK, post Europe)

Please make sure you read and send on within a two month timeframe. If there will be a problem let me know.

Sent to sarahmangan who is first in the ray. I hope you enjoy it!

This arrived today - many thanks! It looks really interesting. I should get onto reading it next week.

I really enjoyed this - the powerful descriptions of the setting almost made it another character in this dark story. I really liked the way it meandered between time periods too, sometimes going off topic - it really got across the voice and thoughts of the narrator successfully.

Thanks for including me in the ray - I'll get it posted onwards ASAP! :)

Posted onwards! :)

Thank you so much sarahmangan for the lovely bookmarks and greenbadger for sharing.

I was very interested in this story at multiple levels. There was a dredger in Saint-Nazaire harbor a few days ago and I recognized the "Chung-gha-chung-ga-chung-ga".
Thank you for this gem.

On its way to Australia. Enjoy !

Arrived in Australia with three other parcels this week - Greenbadger growl at me if I put my name on anything at the moment. Only have a couple of hundred books waiting to be read. At least I've organized my bookshelf now!!

Passing this on to Catsalive I have been struggling to read this and life is to short to try and finish a book you are not enjoying. Sorry Greenbadger I know you loved this but I just can't get intro it.

All right I ended up finishing the book. Enough said. Passing onto Catsalive.

Book has arrived, thanks Billbooks.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the fenlands & waterways. I had this on my shelf a few years ago but couldn't get into it then, this time was better & I enjoyed the book overall. There's not much joy apparent in Swift's Fens, nor for Tom in London - I suppose it was a joyless time, or, perhaps, the Atkinson's were, indeed, cursed.

Sent on to ULRK.

Got it after the usual discussions in the post office.

On its way since some days ago

The book arrived safely today, thanks ULRK !

Bravo, vous venez de capturer un livre !
N’hésitez pas à ajouter un commentaire sur le site du bookcrossing. Soit maintenant, pour dire ce que vous comptez faire de ce livre, soit après l’avoir lu, quand vous voulez.
Des questions ? Allez sur http://www.wikibookcrossing-fr.eu ou sur le forum 17 http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/17 du site du bookcrossing.
Bonne nouvelle, le bookcrossing est ouvert à tout le monde, qu’on lise peu ou beaucoup, qu’importe.

Si vous voulez à votre tour enregistrer et libérer des livres, il faudra que vous deveniez membre. Après, il n’y a pas de règles en béton, évitez seulement de libérer des livres dans des endroits qui poseraient des problèmes de sécurité, aéroports par exemple – attention aux endroits où passent des équipes de nettoyage ou des gandous (éboueurs), évitez les malls et autres centres commerciaux à galeries. Fiez-vous à votre bon sens, en somme.

En explorant le domaine du bookcrossing, vous découvrirez vite ses multiples aspects. Défis thématiques, lâchers «massifs», jeux, tombolas, etc. Je ne vais pas tout dire pour que vous puissiez encore être surpris/e.
Voyez par exemple ce qu'est un Méga Book Crossing ou "MBC" comme le MBC de Bordeaux le samedi 11 octobre 2014...

Qui sait si le prochain livre, ce n'est pas vous qui le libérerez ?

The book marrived today. Thanks for sending it!
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A really good read for this hot summer without rain - it helped me a lot surviving the weather... :-)
Finally the book will be on its way, as soon as I have the next address.