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The Fortnight in September

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
This charming, timeless classic about a family of five setting out on their annual seaside vacation is "the most uplifting, life-affirming novel I can think of...the beautiful dignity to be found in everyday living has rarely been captured more delicately" (Kazuo Ishiguro).
Meet the Stevens family, as they prepare to embark on their yearly holiday to the coast of England. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens first made the trip to Bognor Regis on their honeymoon, and the tradition has continued ever since. They stay in the same guest house and follow the same carefully honed schedule—now accompanied by their three children, twenty-year-old Mary, seventeen-year-old Dick, and little brother Ernie.

Arriving in Bognor they head to Seaview, the guesthouse where they stay every year. It's a bit shabbier than it once was—the landlord has died and his wife is struggling as the number of guests dwindles every year. But the family finds bliss in booking a slightly bigger cabana, with a balcony, and in their rediscovery of the familiar places they visit every year.

Mr. Stevens goes on his annual walk across the downs, reflecting on his life, his worries and disappointments, and returns refreshed. Mrs. Stevens treasures an hour spent sitting alone with her medicinal glass of port. Mary has her first small taste of romance. And Dick pulls himself out of the malaise he's sunk into since graduation, resolving to work towards a new career. The Stevenses savor every moment of their holiday, aware that things may not be the same next year.

Delightfully nostalgic and soothing, The Fortnight in September is an extraordinary novel about ordinary people enjoying life's simple pleasures.
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    The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.

    Summary

    A simple complexity publication with cover images and logos, converted to meet EPUB Accessibility specifications of WCAG-AA level. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for cover images and logos, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order, structural navigation, and semantic structure. Blank pages from print have been removed in this ebook, with related page number spans set on the first following in-spine page. Certain front and back matter pages have been adjusted in the reading order sequence from print, with related page references removed in the page-list order.

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    • No information about appearance modifiability is available.

    • Not all of the content will be readable as read aloud speech or dynamic braille.

    • Has alternative text descriptions for images.

    Conformance

    • The publication contains a conformance statement that it meets the EPUB Accessibility and WCAG 2 Level AA standard.

    • This publication claims to meet EPUB Accessibility 1.1 WCAG 2.2 Level AA.

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    • Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.

    • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation.

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    • High contrast between text and background

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    • Booklist

      Starred review from September 1, 2021
      Decades after this novel was first published in 1931, Sherriff described it as an "everyday kind of story" about an "ordinary sort of people." But the book is extraordinary. Capturing the passing thoughts and feelings that give texture to daily life, it follows the Stevenses, a working-class family of five, on their annual trip to Bognor, a coastal British town. There is no great drama during their vacation, just the sweetness of the two-week reprieve from work--Mr. Stevens' loosened collar, Mrs. Stevens' evening glass of sherry, son Dick's ruddy glow. Beginning on "Going Away Evening," the book's first third tells of their travel preparation and journey. The pages are full of anticipation. Sherriff aptly stretches this time at the start of the vacation, while the days that follow speed by at a quickened pace. The fading house where the family stays each year launches reflection on the long passage of time through the years. Even as they plan for next year--Mrs. Stevens will buy buns on Sunday, not Saturday; they will again reserve a bathing hut with a balcony--there's a sense that time is ticking on these vacations. It must be savored, and so, too, should this very special book.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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