The Grandmothers
Four Short Novels
By Doris Lessing
(Harper Perennial, Paperback, 9780060530112, 336pp.)
Publication Date: January 2005
Categories: Short Stories (single author)
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In the title novel, two friends fall in love with each other's teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, vowing a respectable old age. In Victoria and the Staveneys, a young woman gives birth to a child of mixed race and struggles with feelings of estrangement as her daughter gets drawn into a world of white privilege. The Reason for It traces the birth, faltering, and decline of an ancient culture, with enlightening modern resonances. A Love Child features a World War II soldier who believes he has fathered a love child during a fleeting wartime romance and cannot be convinced otherwise.
Doris Lessing, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, is one of the most celebrated and distinguished writers of our time. She lives in north London.
“A LOVE CHILD possesses both a palpable immediacy and a haunting afterlife.”
-Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
“[Lessing] has never written better.”
-New York Times Book Review
“A brilliantly written book … Lessing is at the top of her game.”
-Library Journal (starred)
“Lessing is without peer.”
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“The four pieces that make up The Grandmothers are masterpieces of artistry and intellect.”
-San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
“Powerful… beautifully realized.”
-Miami Herald
“Stunning … showing Lessing’s trademark incisiveness.”
-Vogue
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