Description

By (author) Dineen, Roz

Short /annotation:

A startlingly beautiful story of a family”s survival, and an unforgettable dystopian vision of a familiar world in flames

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A startlingly beautiful story of a family”s survival, and an unforgettable dystopian vision of a familiar world in flames

Shortlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize 2024

A Spectator Book of the Year 2024

‘A gut-punch of a novel’ Observer

‘Hauntingly realistic, disturbing, stylish, raw and urgent’ Daily Telegraph

‘Left me breathless’ Jodie Whittaker

It is possible for a mother to love her children beyond reason. It is possible that wildfires will take hold, the internet will turn off, the clean water will stop running. It is possible to find yourself in relationships that are as dark and exploitative as mankind’s relationship to earth. It is possible you will realise one day that your city is not safe, that you have to leave, that you have to get the children out.

And when that day comes, this is what Cass does. Packing up their lives, she and her children set off in search of a place of greater safety.

‘Instantly immersive, beautifully imagined, this is an unflinching but inspiring story about some things we”re going to lose, and other things we must never lose’ Lee Child

‘Dineen is an extraordinary writer’ Evening Standard

‘We owe Roz Dineen a debt. This is a remarkable book’ TLS

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Instantly immersive, beautifully imagined, this is an unflinching but inspiring story about some things we”re going to lose, and other things we must never lose

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The best novel I have read this year … In the tradition of haunting dystopian fiction by women (Doris Lessing, Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood), Briefly Very Beautiful is a poetic and sensual page-turner that perfectly captures motherhood on the brink of apocalypse

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Dineen is an extraordinary writer

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Impossible to put down … Hauntingly realistic, disturbing, stylish, raw and urgent

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A disturbing but ultimately hopeful dystopian novel

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A haunting vision of our slow-motion apocalypse. This is exactly what it will be like

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A story that burns from the page. Dineen writes about motherhood and the climate crisis with piercing clarity

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An incredible novel … Briefly Very Beautiful left me breathless. It is a stunning, poetic, impelling story of love and survival, which I could not stop reading

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In her debut novel, Roz Dineen unforgettably captures the fear and frenzy of a dystopian future that is coming ever closer. Her prose is gorgeous; her characters fierce and haunting. A book that is, quite literally, on fire. Very beautiful and all-too brief

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A beautiful and timely novel, combining a tough yet tender-eyed depiction of motherhood with clear-sighted commentary on the climate crisis. This is an important book and I devoured it

Review quote:
A poetic and sensual page-turner that perfectly captures motherhood on the brink of apocalypse

Biographical note:
Roz Dineen was at the Times Literary Supplement for twelve years, variously as Fiction Editor, Features Editor and a contributor of essays, reviews and a column. Born in Brighton, she studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, and received a Masters in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS. She was Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Wall Street Journal, where her writing has also appeared. She lives with her two children in South London.

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