The Queen of the Tambourine

Winner of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel of the Year: "Gardam's portrait of an insanely imaginative woman in an elusive midlife crisis is impeccably drawn" ( The Seattle Times ).

With prose that is vibrant and witty, The Queen of the Tambourine traces the emotional breakdown--and eventual restoration--of Eliza Peabody, a smart and wildly imaginative woman who has become unbearably isolated in her prosperous London neighborhood. The letters Eliza writes to her neighbor, a woman whom she hardly knows, reveal her self-propelled descent into madness. Eliza must reach the depths of her downward spiral before she can once again find health and serenity. This story of a woman's confrontation with the realities of sanity will delight readers who enjoy the works of Anita Brookner, Sybille Bedford, Muriel Spark, and Sylvia Plath.

"Excellently done . . . Manic delusions have never been so persuasive . . . Very moving when it is not being exceedingly funny." --Anita Brookner, award-winning author of The Debut

"British author Gardam, who won the Whitbread Award for this jigsaw puzzle of a novel, keeps up the suspense to the end, writing like a sorceress in the meantime." -- The Seattle Times

"Brilliant." -- The Sunday Times

"An ingenious, funny, satirical, sad story . . . Vivid and poignant." -- The Independent on Sunday

"Wickedly comic . . . masterly and hugely enjoyable." -- Daily Mail

"Marvelously subtle and moving." -- The Times (London)