{"product_id":"9781837268030","title":"The Country Schoolmaster","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFROM THE WOMEN'S PRIZE-WINNING, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'One of Australia's finest writers' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Grenville inhabits characters with a rare completeness' \u003cb\u003eJay Parini\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e'I stood there holding the hundred-year-old letter with a feeling that was familiar from other archives, other bulging files of dog-eared paper. It was a blood-running-fast, itchy-palm, eyes-wide-open feeling of stumbling on something. A story . . .'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRummaging around in the Archives one afternoon, Kate Grenville comes across an innocuous-looking file of letters about a schoolteacher in New South Wales. Intrigued, she keeps reading - and discovers a tale far more curious and complex than she ever could have imagined. Contradictory perspectives on Joseph Connor are everywhere, and many of them eerily sinister. Was he savagely beating the students in his care? Or was he the victim of a small-town vendetta? And what went so terribly wrong between him and his daughter?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrenville simply has to know: was Connor a victim, or a villain? Part colonial cold case, part dance of a writer's imagination, \u003ci\u003eThe Country Schoolmaster \u003c\/i\u003eis a book like no other. In it, the novelist comes to understand the seductive pleasure of story-making, but also its dangerous limitations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grenville, Kate","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":59015251951990,"sku":"9781837268030","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1208\/4146\/files\/9781837268030.jpg?v=1792149613","url":"https:\/\/chepstowbooks.co.uk\/products\/9781837268030","provider":"Chepstow Books \u0026 Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}