{"product_id":"9780007583737","title":"In the Approaches","description":"\u003cp\u003e‘Open yourself up again to all that terrible light and savage bliss and deafening reverberation …’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the Summer of 1971, a charismatic family seeks refuge in the quiet, English coastal backwater of Pett Level. Bran Cleary is a controversial Irish muralist; his fractious and promiscuous wife (and muse) 'Lonely' Allaway is half Aboriginal; their strange, sickly daughter, Orla Nor, is almost a Saint.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirteen years later, a shifty individual turns up in Pett Level, apparently determined to get to the bottom of the bizarre and ultimately tragic events which unfolded in the aftermath of that arrival. But does he really want to understand, or is he just way too close to the story to make any clear sense of it? And what of the locals who seem so determined to resist and undermine his investigations?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘In The Approaches’ is a fabulously twisted comedy of very bad manners which starts out as a seaside idyll and ends up as a pilgrimage – sometimes sacred, sometimes profane, and frequently both at once. Set in a 1984 which seems almost as distantly located in the past as Orwell’s was in the future, Nicola Barker’s tenth novel offers a captivating glimpse of something more shocking than any dystopia – the possibility of faith.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn In The Approaches, Nicola Barker presents a literary work of art that masterfully combines elements of psychological suspense and satire. The thrilling narrative makes it one of the best in the genre of fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Deborah Levy (Hot Milk), Zadie Smith (Swing Time), Georgi Gospodinov (Time Shelter), Jennifer Egan (A Visit From the Goon Squad), and Susanna Clarke (The Wood at Midwinter).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nicola Barker, Read by Stephen Perring and Antonia Beamish","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46889081864341,"sku":"9780007583737","price":39.49,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780007583737_13fc8f8a-1d4f-425f-abf8-437a6716d0c0.jpg?v=1776888362","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780007583737","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}