Name: Lighthousekeeping
Rating: 3.825 (20 reviews)
ISBN: 9780007181506

Jeanette Winterson

From one of Britain's best-loved literary novelists comes a magical, lyrical tale of the young orphan Silver, taken in by the ancient lighthousekeeper Mr. Pew, who reveals to her a world of myth and mystery through the art of storytelling.

Lighthousekeeping

Orphaned and anchorless, Silver is taken in by blind Mr. Pew, the mysterious and miraculously old keeper of the Cape Wrath lighthouse. Pew tells Silver ancient tales of longing and rootlessness, of journeys that move through place and time, of passion and betrayal. His stories center on Babel Dark, a local nineteenth-century clergyman who lived two lives: a public one mired in darkness and a private one bathed in a beacon of light. Pew's stories are, for Silver, a map through her own particular darkness, into her own story and, finally, into love.

Daryl Houston

An off-beat, weird, lovely book that made me think of The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip and the Series of Unfortunate Events books early on, oddly enough, but that turned toward a more adult mood deeper into the book. It's almost like a long prose poem, maybe.

Taken in by the enigmatic blind keeper of the Cape Wrath lighthouse, an orphaned Silver listens as the aged man recounts stories that center around a nineteenth-century clergyman who lived a paradoxical life while experiencing unfulfilled passions, displacement, and betrayal. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

Lighthousekeeping

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