Cover of The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

The Queen of the Tambourine

Jane Gardam · 1991

A woman writes letters to a neighbour who may not be receiving them, or existing.

Eliza Peabody writes increasingly urgent letters to a neighbour who has left, or possibly to a neighbour who was never quite there, while her own life in suburban London comes unmoored. Gardam keeps the reader uncertain how much of the narration to believe, and the novel is funny for a long time before it turns out to be about grief. It won the Whitbread Novel Award.

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Jessica Francis Kane

Novelist and Short Story Writer

Gardam is well known for her Old Filth series, but this novel about a woman losing and then regaining her sense of self is not to be missed.

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