Authors: Katherine Webb

A Half Forgotten Song (59 page)

BOOK: A Half Forgotten Song

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The settings in the novel feel very real—how do you go about creating the feel of real places?

I always try to give as much of a multisensory picture to readers as I can—rather than giving a detailed description of the layout or exact situation of a place, I try to show what the light is like there, what the smells are, what the weather is doing, what you would hear if you were there. Those are the things you’d notice if you were actually there, and those are the things that make one place so different from another. Obviously, it helps if you’ve been to the place you are setting your story, and spent enough time there to build up an impression of all these things, which you can then relay to readers. I think writers and artists are often very observant for this reason—the urge is always there to re-create that place, that feeling, that atmosphere.

Any clues about your next novel—any snippets for us?

It’s set in Bath in 1820. It’s about a girl who vanished—a girl who meant a great deal to a disparate group of people, but was not loved by them all. The story follows the unraveling of her disappearance.

Reading Group Guide

1. Why is it important to Zach that Charles Aubrey might be his grandfather? In what ways does this belief shape who he is? Why do you think he doesn’t simply ask his grandmother from the beginning?

2. As we see the story unfold through the lenses of the 1930s and the present, what does the author appear to be saying about the nature of memory? Do you agree?

3. This novel has a very strong coming-of-age element, particularly as we see Mitzy move from childhood innocence to womanhood. At what point do you think she crosses the divide?

4. Charles Aubrey has very definite views on beauty and what’s worth capturing. What do his aesthetic preferences and visual tendencies say about him as an artist and as a man? Do you think his intentions toward Mitzy were ever what she believed them to be?

5. Mitzy grew up in a home with very little tenderness, and the Aubreys take her in with open arms. Why do you believe she becomes so enamored with Charles? Why is the idea of this relationship more important to her than the closeness she shares with Delphine or the kindness shown to her by Celeste?

6. In some ways the settings of the idyllic and wild Dorset coast and hot and sultry Morocco become characters themselves. Why do you think the author chose such contrasting worlds?

7. “She would always strive to give him whatever he asked for. Making him happy was all she could do for him, and all she could do for herself. Protecting him assuaged the feeling of falling that she still woke up with every single day.” When you reached the end of the novel, what were your feelings about Dimity? How had they changed as you read?

Read on

Suggested Further Reading

Atonement
by Ian McEwan

Confinement
by Katharine McMahon

The Forgotten Garden
by Kate Morton

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
by Kim Edwards

Have You Read?
More by Katherine Webb

THE LEGACY

When they were children, Erica Calcott and her sister, Beth, spent their summer holidays at Storton Manor. Now, following the death of their grandmother, they have returned to the grand, imposing house in Wiltshire, England. Unable to stem the tide of childhood memories that arise as she sorts through her grandmother’s belongings, Erica thinks back to the summer her cousin Henry vanished mysteriously from the estate, an event that tore their family to pieces. It is time, she believes, to lay the past to rest, bring her sister some peace, and finally solve the mystery of her cousin’s disappearance.

But sifting through remnants of a bygone time is bringing a secret family history to light—one that stretches back over a century, to a beautiful society heiress in Oklahoma, a haunting, savage land across the ocean. And as past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two shocking acts of betrayal . . . and the heartbreaking legacy they left behind.

THE UNSEEN

A vicar with a passion for nature, the reverend Albert Canning leads a happy existence with his naïve wife, Hester, in their sleepy Berkshire village in the year 1911. But as the English summer dawns, the Cannings’ lives are forever changed by two arrivals: Cat, their new maid, a disaffected, free-spirited young woman sent down from London after entanglements with the law; and Robin Durrant, a leading expert in the occult, enticed by tales of elemental beings in the water meadows nearby.

Quickly finding a place for herself in the underbelly of local society, Cat secretly plots her escape. Meanwhile, Robin, a young man of considerable magnetic charm and beauty, soon becomes an object of fascination and desire. Sweltering in the oppressive summer heat, the peaceful rectory turns into a hotbed of dangerous ambition, forbidden love, and jealousy—a potent mixture of emotions that ultimately leads to murder.

Credits

Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa

Cover photograph © by Andy & Michelle Kerry/Trevillion Images

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A HALF FORGOTTEN SONG. Copyright © 2012 by Katherine Webb. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2012 by Orion Books Ltd.

FIRST U.S. EDITION

ISBN: 978-0-06-223446-9

EPUB Edition © June 2013 ISBN: 9780062234520

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