Sacred Country
Encyclopedia
Sacred Country is a novel by English author Rose Tremain
, it was published in 1992 by Sinclair Stevenson and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
and Prix Femina Etranger. It has been compared to Virginia Woolf
's Orlando
.
, has a revelation: she isn't Mary, she's a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender
, while around her others also strive to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world".
edition :
Stephen Dobyns
writes for the New York Times, "a book that makes us feel good about the state of fiction in an uncertain market"
Novelist Lynne Freed
observes "The writing... is sheer delight. It is skilled, intelligent storytelling at its best".
Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain CBE is an English author.-Life:Rose Tremain was born Rosemary Jane Thomson on August 2, 1943 in London and attended Francis Holland School then Crofton Grange School from 1954 to 1961; the Sorbonne from 1961–1962; and graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1965 where she then...
, it was published in 1992 by Sinclair Stevenson and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
and Prix Femina Etranger. It has been compared to Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
's Orlando
Orlando: A Biography
Orlando: A Biography is an influential novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. A semi-biographical novel based in part on the life of Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West, it is generally considered one of Woolf's most accessible novels...
.
Plot introduction
"At the age of six, Mary Ward, the child of a poor farming family in SuffolkSuffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, has a revelation: she isn't Mary, she's a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
, while around her others also strive to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world".
Reception
Positive review extracts on the back cover of the 2002 VintageVintage Books
Vintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
edition :
- "Hypnotic...Curiously beautiful and strikingly original" - Spectator
- "Brilliant...A strong, complex, unsentimental novel" - Times Literary Supplement
- "Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart...Funny absorbing and quite original. I've read nothing to touch it this year" - Literary ReviewLiterary ReviewLiterary Review is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at Edinburgh University. Its offices are currently on Lexington Street in Soho, London, and it has a circulation of 44,750. Britain's principal literary monthly, the magazine was...
Stephen Dobyns
Stephen Dobyns
Stephen J. Dobyns is an American poet and novelist born in Orange, New Jersey, and residing in Westerly, RI.-Life:Was born on February 19, 1941 in Orange, New Jersey to Lester L., a minister, and Barbara Johnston...
writes for the New York Times, "a book that makes us feel good about the state of fiction in an uncertain market"
Novelist Lynne Freed
Lynne Freed
-Life:She came to the U.S. first as a foreign exchange student, and then went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University...
observes "The writing... is sheer delight. It is skilled, intelligent storytelling at its best".
Film Adaptation
Filmmaker Jan Dunn has acquired the film rights to the novel and is adapting the screenplay. Other sources state that Tremain herself is adapting it in three parts for television.External links
- Roots on the map Review from The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
by Natasha WalterNatasha WalterNatasha Walter is a British feminist writer and human rights activist. She is the author of Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism and The New Feminism , and is the director of Women for Refugee Women ....