The Golden Rule, Amanda Craig
The Golden Rule, Amanda Craig
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The Golden Rule
Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021

Author: Amanda Craig

Narrator: Lucy Price-Lewis

Unabridged: 11 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/02/2020


Synopsis

Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021

A Times, Sunday Times, Observer, Daily Mail and Financial Times Best Book of 2020 Pick

'A highly enjoyable story about female resilience and finding fulfilment on your own terms' Sunday Times

'An irresistible summer read' Guardian Book of the Day

'A typically sharp and hugely satisfying page-turner' Daily Mail

She's such a skilful storyteller' Bernardine Evaristo

When Hannah is invited into the First-Class carriage of the London to Penzance train by Jinni, she walks into a spider's web. Now a poor young single mother, Hannah once escaped Cornwall to go to university. But once she married Jake and had his child, her dreams were crushed into bitter disillusion. Her husband has left her for Eve, rich and childless, and Hannah has been surviving by becoming a cleaner in London. Jinni is equally angry and bitter, and in the course of their journey the two women agree to murder each other's husbands. After all, they are strangers on a train - who could possibly connect them?

But when Hannah goes to Jinni's husband's home the next night, she finds Stan, a huge, hairy, ugly drunk who has his own problems - not least the care of a half-ruined house and garden. He claims Jinni is a very different person to the one who has persuaded Hannah to commit a terrible crime. Who is telling the truth - and who is the real victim?

Praise for Amanda Craig

'Terrific, page-turning, slyly funny' India Knight
'As satisfying a novel as I have read in years' Sarah Perry
'Amanda Craig is one of the most brilliant and entertaining novelists now working in Britain' Alison Lurie

About Amanda Craig

Amanda Craig is a British novelist, short-story writer and critic. After a brief time in advertising and PR, she became a journalist for newspapers such as the Sunday Times, Observer, Daily Telegraph and Independent, winning both the Young Journalist of the Year and the Catherine Pakenham Award. She was the children's critic for the Independent on Sunday and The Times. She still reviews children's books for the New Statesman, and literary fiction for the Observer, but is mostly a full-time novelist. Her novel Hearts and Minds was longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and The Lie of the Land was chosen as book of the year by the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph, New Statesman, Evening Standard, Sunday Times and Irish Times.


Reviews

She had intended to bury herself in Persuasion but instead found herself in quite a different story, a vulgar and brutal thriller of the kind she avoided when she had any time to read at all. She had expected her life to belong to one kind of genre, but instead it had twisted into another, somethi......more

Goodreads review by Nigel

In brief - I have to say that I think this seems to have a range of genres in it - however ultimately I enjoyed reading it and I do like Hannah as a character. In full Hannah is on the train to Cornwall to see her mother who is dying. She meets Jinni on the train and their conversations about their l......more

Where to begin ? A ridiculous story line isn’t a deal breaker , just suspend belief and with a bit of imagination it can take you along but that didn’t seem to work for this book. Well it started alright but midway the plot seemed to fizzle out only to make way for a rant , that went on and on , abo......more


Quotes

A highly enjoyable story about female resilience and finding fulfilment on your own terms, with a twist that is all the more compelling for its unexpectedness Sunday Times

An irresistible summer read: a rollicking plot, a heroine who is more than a match for anything the author throws at her and meaty social issues Guardian Book of the Day

The plot becomes so gripping - the sort of story where you want to pull the heroine out of the pages away from danger The Times

A typically sharp and hugely satisfying page-turner about two women who decide to murder each other's husbands Daily Mail

Such an interesting read! . . . A story of lies - and learning that people aren't always who they appear to be Prima

A pacy state-of-the-nation drama that tackles issues from domestic abuse to workplace harassment, gentrification to the gig economy Mail on Sunday

Clever and compelling, The Golden Rule is a modern mash-up of Rebecca and Strangers on a Train Red

The Golden Rule does what her novels do best, wrapping the reader in a tight, lean narrative, showing the strangeness that lies at the heart of normal-seeming lives Observer

An acute and passionate observer of society in both town and country, and among rich and poor. She is harrowingly good at portraying the corrosive effects of poverty, particularly on vulnerable women with children to protect. Her prose is a delight...Best of all, Craig has the knack of creating interesting characters and of making one care about what lies in store for them. If you can do that, nothing else really matters Spectator

Perceptive and wise, particularly on the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor Independent


Awards

  • Women's Prize for Fiction