An Awfully Big Adventure

By Beryl Bainbridge,

Book cover of An Awfully Big Adventure

Book description

'This is one of Bainbridge's best books. The close observation and hilarity are underlain by a sense of tragedy as deep as any in fiction' The Times

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE IN 1990

It is 1950 and the Liverpool repertory theatre company is rehearsing its Christmas production of Peter…

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Why read it?

1 author picked An Awfully Big Adventure as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stella Bradshaw, an aspiring teenage actor in 1950s Liverpool, joins a local theater company for its Christmas production of Peter Pan, and everyone gets more than they bargained for. Stella is a willful working-class ingenue desperate to escape her broken home life, and her enthusiasm and fearlessness force a collection of dissolute, jaded theater actors and directors to confront their own career and life choices.

The revelation on the last page makes you reconsider everything that went before in a surprise ending that’s far from a gimmick.

From Mark's list on witty historical novels.

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