{"product_id":"wish-her-safe-at-home-isbn-9781590173350","title":"Wish Her Safe At Home","description":"Rachel Waring is deliriously happy. Out of nowhere, a great-aunt leaves her a Georgian mansion in another city—and she sheds her old life without delay. Gone is her dull administrative job, her mousy wardrobe, her downer of a roommate. She will live as a woman of leisure, devoted to beauty, creativity, expression, and love. Once installed in her new quarters, Rachel plants a garden, takes up writing, and impresses everyone she meets with her extraordinary optimism. But as Rachel sings and jokes the days away, her new neighbors begin to wonder if she might be taking her transformation just a bit too far.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eWish Her Safe at Home\u003c\/i\u003e, Stephen Benatar finds humor and horror in the shifting region between elation and mania. His heroine could be the next-door neighbor of the Beales of Grey Gardens or a sister to Jane Gardam’s oddball protagonists, but she has an ebullient charm all her own.\"The inheritance of a mansion in Bristol sparks Stephen Benatar’s rediscovered classic \u003ci\u003eWish Her Safe at Home\u003c\/i\u003e, in which a cheerfully unbalanced young striver finds her energetic efforts to embrace the finer things in life (and seduce the vicar) thwarted.\" \u003ci\u003e--Vogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is a most original and surprising novel, and one difficult to forget: it stays in the mind.” –Dorris Lessing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I truly loved this book…such a marvelous work…” –Emma Thompson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A masterpiece…matchlessly clever…wholly original.”  --John Carey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The story is simple, the implications are complex. Rachel is one of the great English female characters. . . . She is Scarlett O’Hara, Blanche DuBois, Snow White and Miss Havisham all rolled into one.” —S.J. Newman, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A truly remarkable novel, unique and of a world all its own, the best work I’ve read for a long time. . . . I took it slowly, so many pages a day. I’m never one to spoil enjoyment when into something so extraordinary.” —Alan Sillitoe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Benatar brilliantly imagines himself into a tragically compassionate mind for which wild fancy is the only, and proper, antidote to despair.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A neglected masterpiece…Brilliant…” –Joan Bakewell, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This horrifying exploration of madness at least deserves to be called a cult classic.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A remarkably odd and chilling story.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There is something about Rachel Waring—something which is instantly apparent when you read the book—that makes the reader care deeply for her…\u003ci\u003eWish her Safe at Home \u003c\/i\u003eis spooky, odd and brilliant.” –\u003ci\u003eCamden New Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The atmosphere of encroaching cobwebs, decreasing funds and withering reality is well done…a nice grey sense of eccentricity shading into madness.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rachel’s impact on the world is only glimpsed in snatches, but they’re enough to suggest that her self-view is woefully at odds with society at large. It’s a brilliantly clever  technique, with an impact particularly unsettling for those who choose to live alone.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This is one of those satisfying stories that is told in the first person by one who does not understand the import of what she’s revealing–very much like Molly Keane’s 'Good Behavior,' in fact. Rachel goes entirely mad, but in a way that perfectly reveals a grim world of predatory intent and callousness all around her. It is a black comedy, exuberantly grotesque, but sad and poignant as well.\" –Katherine A. Powers, \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephen Benatar\u003c\/b\u003e was born in London in 1937. He has taught English at the University of Bordeaux, lived in Southern California, been a schoolteacher, an umbrella salesman, a hotel porter, and an employee of the Forestry Commission. He began writing as a child, but did not publish his first book, \u003ci\u003eThe Man on the Bridge\u003c\/i\u003e, until he was forty-four. Subsequent works include \u003ci\u003eWish Her Safe at Home, When I Was Otherwise, Recovery, Letters for a Spy\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eTwo on a Tiger and Stars\u003c\/i\u003e, a book for young readers. Benatar has four grown children and currently lives in West Hampstead, London, with his partner, John.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Carey\u003c\/b\u003e is Arts Emeritus Merton Professor of English at Oxford University. He has appeared as a host and commentator on numerous television and radio programs in England and is the former chief book reviewer for \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times.\u003c\/i\u003e Among his books are \u003ci\u003eThe Intellectuals and the Masses\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhat Good Are the Arts?, Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the Twenieth Century’s Most Enjoyable Book\u003c\/i\u003es, and a biography of William Golding. He has chaired the Booker Prize committee twice and in 2005 was the chair of the first international Booker Prize committee.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305485160677,"sku":"NP9781590173350","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590173350.jpg?v=1767744401","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/wish-her-safe-at-home-isbn-9781590173350","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}