My Nine Lives

Description: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a novelist of unequalled insight, grace and emotional power. My Nine Lives represents a new and fascinating strand in her outstanding canon of work: as she puts it, the 'potentially autobiographical'. Behind her poised, eloquent prose Ruth Prawer Jhabvala deftly tussles with the existential question of how destiny is shaped. In each chapter of My Nine Lives the narrator faces a startlingly different fate. One story takes place in India, the next in New York; in one the narrator is grown married woman, in another a dependent daughter, in one a scholar, in another an uneducated ingenue. But a complex thread interlinks the seemingly disparate stories: the 'I' of each chapter has Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Jewish, Central European background. Here are nine different answers to the central question: what would happen if I were granted an alternative life?

Review: 'suffused with a strong flavour of personal experience' -- You 20040715 'Exciting, engaging and so very convincing' -- Irish Times 20040715 '[Jhabvala] has taken the immigrant experience and personalised it in a wonderfully unique way' -- Independent on Sunday 20040715 'A very personal book, Jhalbvala attempts nine different answers to the question: What would happen if I were granted a different life? -- Brighton Argus 20050225 'The shards of memory and experience from which the stories are formed are as rich and bright as the jewelled fragments that make a kaleidoscope's image.' -- Sunday Telegraph 20050225 'elegantly crafted tales...they illustrate, magnificently, the dubious comforts of English innocence' -- Bryan Cheyette, Times Literary Supplement 20040716 'sinewy with compressed emotion and intellectual energy, as well as the poignancy of a thwarted search for love... a finely crafted example of an accomplished story-teller's art' -- Publishing Weekly 20040503 'It is this quality of elegant, unfussy writing that makes the book so enjoyable to read.' -- Student Direct 20050418 'Jhabvala's writing has a feather-like lightness that the stories are easy to read but are secretly powerful tales.' -- Scan 20050503 'I couldn't put it down when I got started. It's well worth the read and is incredibly well-written.' -- Scan 20050503 'They resonate with felt experience...She creates a scenario so powerfully that you are there with her in the spicy heat of India' -- Daily Telegraph 20040724 'Each work has her hallmark of balance, subtlety, wry humor and beauty' -- New York Times Book Review 20040724 'Conveys a whole lifetime of passion, endeavour, disappointment and achievement. These stories, written in a simple prose beautifully combining relaxation and alertness, show an admired writer ... in total possession of her creative powers.' -- Literary Review 20040724 'Savour this fine collection of stories!There is a consistency of tone: reminiscent, ruefully humorous, accepting! very funny in their quiet, dry, unobtrusive way. The prose throughout is clean and uncluttered: the sort of writing that marks out a genuine mistress of her craft' -- Sunday Times 20040724 'Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a wonderful natural storyteller!The easy tone is utterly compelling. It is a delight, from first page to last' -- Scotsman 20040724 'Imagining what life might have been ...this is fiction that comes as close to autobiography as the author dares.' - Emma Hagestadt. -- The Independent 20050304 'By the end, while she may not fully have revealed herself, she has shown the grand sweep of life.' - Elena Seymenliyska. -- The Daily Telegraph 20050312 'A tellingly atmospheric consideration of nationality, identity and myth making.' -- The Irish Times 20050312 'The most prominent theme is a string of inadvisable affairs with irascible, unreliable older men ...perhaps it'll be 10th time lucky?' -- The Guardian 20050312 'One is dazzled by veiled fragments of a life that might have been.' -- Guardian 20050319 'Combined, these tales form an oblique portrait of the inner life of the author.' -- Sunday Times 20050327

Author Biography: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany of Polish parents and came to England in 1939 at the age of twelve. She graduated from Queen Mary College, London University, and married an architect. They lived in Delhi from 1951 to 1975. Since then they have divided their time between Delhi, New York and London.