When the World Was Steady book cover

When the World Was Steady

368 pages
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Published: 28 Jul 1994
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Editions
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Details

This edition

ISBN: 9780393355093

Format: Paperback

Language: English

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Publication date: 29 August 2017

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Description

A PEN/Faulkner Award finalist about two sisters’ divergent paths, from the author of The Burning Girl and The Emperor’s Children. In this highly acclaimed novel, life isn’t all Emmy and Virginia Simpson anticipated. When Emmy’s marriage ends, she flees her home in Sydney to “find herself” on the island of Bali―only to become embroiled with a crew of international misfits and smugglers. Her prim and pious sister Virginia, meanwhile, has never wandered far outside of London. Struggling to find meaning, Virginia follows her aging mother’s advice to vacation on the Isle of Skye. On these two islands halfway around the world, the middle-aged sisters confront the costs of self-knowledge and their destinies with unexpected consequences.