I read a review last month in the Washington Post Book World of The Northern Clemency, by Philip Hensher. It's a long review, but it caught my eye. First, it mentions that The Northern Clemency (which I'd never heard of before) was named Amazon's Best Book of 2008. Second, I liked this description of the book: "It presents a continuously evolving panorama of two middle-class families in Sheffield, where the author grew up, about 150 miles from London. In 1974, when the city 'was entering on the last phase of its industrial greatness,' this was, Hensher writes, a place that 'made its money from steel; it was driven by its waters; it was built on coal.' But those elemental foundations are about to shift dramatically, and over the next 20 years, the gossipy citizens who live on an ordinary Sheffield street will endure upheaval they could not have imagined."
According to the Post, "[Hensher] writes with such illuminating attention to the flutterings of everyday hope and despair that you come away from these pages feeling like a more insightful person. That's all we ask from the best books of the year."
This sounds like a meaty, satisfying period book – the kind that always sounds appealing to me in person but which I regularly pass over on the TBR list. With so many books on the list, I would probably opt for something shorter and quicker, though I admit that I am intrigued by this one. Has anyone out there read it yet?