Tenderness

“An ambitious sprawl of a book, splendidly extreme in its magnitude, yet always elegant; a defence of complicated thinking and embodied life.”—The Guardian

“Glorious and arresting . . . A widescreen novel.”—The Observer

“A hugely daring, intrigue-packed, decade-jumping doorstopper that teasingly blends fiction and actuality with wit and panache.”—Daily Mail

“This novel has an expansive reach. Humans are contradictory, time folds in on itself, and literature informs life. Quotes from Lawrence's writing, his contemporaries' poems, and even this novel itself are layered through the book as if seen through a scrim behind the novel's primary text.”—Historical Novel Society

“Tenderness is a passionate, epic joy. It's a paean to artistic imagination and freedom, and also to the messy complexity of humanity. The characters leap from the page with astonishing life that is all the more impressive given their historical fame. MacLeod's prose is a masterclass—gripping, lyrical, witty, razor-sharp and filled with, yes, tenderness. I will never forget it.”—Madeline Miller, author of Circe

“Tenderness is a triumph and it will conquer your heart. Stunning, illuminating, but also, profoundly moving.”—Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees

“What a triumph of skill and imagination is this powerful, moving, brilliant novel! I've never read anything quite like Tenderness, and I doubt I ever will again. This is more than a book about a book; this is a book about living— about really living, at the most dangerous and beautiful edges of the human experience. I stand in awe of Alison MacLeod. She is a novelist operating at the peak of her powers—no less a genius than the master whose work she has so lovingly and shrewdly explored here. She moves across time and space like a wizard, wrapping up fact within fiction so magically that you can't find a seam anywhere. Tenderness is an utterly captivating read, and I came away from it with this astonished thought: There's nothing this writer can't do.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

“As sublimely crafted as a novel could ever be. Tenderness is an intricate, mesmerising tapestry of love and regret, prudery and desire, loneliness and togetherness, loyalty and betrayal, and the enigmas and conundrums involved in the art of committing these experiences to the page.”—Isabella Tree, author of Wilding

“Alison MacLeod has bored deep into significant cultural fault-lines of the twentieth century: D.H. Lawrence's grappling with Edwardian England's psychological timidity; America's moment of political optimism with the Kennedys; the trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover. She has disentangled connections--roots--between them and their participants, and emerged with a great sweeping symphony of a novel.”—Tim Pears, author of The West Country trilogy

“Gorgeously written and meticulously conceived.”—David Leavitt, author of Shelter in Place

“Brilliant . . . MacLeod evokes Lawrence's world beautifully, and her Kennedy subplot works shockingly well, as does the students' relationship, which evokes the passion that powered all of Lawrence's work . . . brimming with deeply felt life.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Magnificent . . . MacLeod covers an astonishingly broad range of incidents, eras, and themes in vivid prose, and depicts Lawrence's supporters and opponents with equal insight and sympathy. . . . A triumphant demonstration of that power, this places MacLeod among the best of contemporary novelists.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)