Kate Atkinson

A deeply moving family story of happiness and heartbreak, Behind the Scenes at the Museum is bestselling author Kate Atkinson's award-winning literary debut. National Bestseller Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets. Kate Atkinson's first novel is "a multigenerational tale of a spectacularly dysfunctional Yorkshire family and one of the funniest works of fiction to come out of Britain in years" (The New York Times Book Review).

A Novel

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stock in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster, with sensible and sardonic Patricia aged five, greedy cross-patch Gillian who refused to be ignored, and Ruby. Ruby tells the story of The Family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a travelling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life.

Ivan Shiel

Why did I find this book to be such a struggle? I suppose it may be the god-like view of the narrator that makes every thing seem inevitable and removes the feeling that anything is at stake. Maybe it’s because it’s meant to be humorous (if Hilary Mantel is to be believed) but the jokes never land. The narrator chugs along, giving away the future when it suits, and concealing when it doesn’t. Maybe that bothers me too: it’s density seems to be a trick to obscure the story, which feels a little frustrating sometimes. 

Personally I find it hard to recommend even though it is clearly well crafted.

Jenny Ramsay

Thoroughly enjoyed the parts narrated by Ruby, but found the ‘footnote’ sections very dry. 

Behind the Scenes at the Museum A Novel

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