The Republic of Love
From the Orange Prize-winning and Booker Prize-shortlisted author, a hymn to the pleasures and pains, and even the raptures of an unspectacular life.
Fay is a folklorist whose passion for mermaids provides her with a sense of continuity with the past. Tom is the host of a late-night radio show. Married and divorced three time before his fortieth birthday, he nevertheless hopes that next time around he will at last make the right choice. For both Fay and Tom, falling in love at first sight is at once an immense surprise and the cause of not a little trepidation.
”'A novel that’s so engrossing it makes you want to retire to a squashy sofa until you reach the end. Vividly fresh…glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises.” - Sunday Times
”''The Republic of Love' is a hymn to the pleasures and pains, the raptures even of an unspectacular life. Shields delivers it with so much grace and so little pretension, that it is impossible not to be enchanted by her voice. She sings with the charm of a true siren. In her hands, we believe, anything can happen.” - Guardian
”''The Republic of Love' marries a wide diversity of elements, mythical and modern, ironic and moving, exhilarating and melancholy…a love-surveying story that is enticingly seductive.” - Times Literary Supplement