Flamingo: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022, an exquisite novel of kindness and hope

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The description of cancer as a ring-tailed lemur is just one example of the way Bevis always sidesteps expectations to create poetry that is moving, transformative and always surprising.

Das Buch hat mich oft zum Nachdenken gebracht, hauptsächlich über die Bedürfnisse von Menschen, über die Psyche und über Einsamkeit und Verluste. He has dedicated himself to the profession of photography for more than 20 years and has been actively involved in various conservation projects throughout Mexico. Kerry Fowler | Sainsbury’s Magazine’s ‘Book Club Choice’ for September 2022 ‘I honestly can’t overemphasise how much I loved Flamingo, I couldn’t put it down. The mix of people allows Elliot to examine different lives from different perspectives, and giving us insights into the lies people tell each other to keep each other safe. You want to keep them in your heart, listen to them, sit down at that table and be a family together.In 1984 a rather itinerant family the 22 year old Eve and her 6 year old son Daniel (who have been moving at random around the country after fleeing their Derbyshire home when Eve was born), rent the house next door to a “rambunctious” family of four: the mid 30s Sherry, her 15 year old and more serious husband Leslie, their introverted 9 year old daughter Rae and her more conventional 6 year old sister Pauline. Hotel Flamingo is a gentle hug of a book that's perfect for young boys and girls, and its adorable characters will put a smile on every child’s face. His new series for Piccadilly Press, Hotel Flamingo, is all about a girl who runs a hotel for animals. There’s a lot of rather delightful power ballads threaded through the book from one of the main characters and I found myself googling them to listen to. Eve gets a job at a local rather eccentric off licence and art gallery, but she and Daniel are effectively absorbed as additional members of Sherry and Leslie’s family.

I loved this book so much, it made my heart sing and is all about love, kindness and being around people that accept you for who you are. Aber wer das gut ab kann und wen die narrative Vorhersehbarkeit nicht stört, dem wird der Roman gut gefallen. What the book does not have is Smith’s heavy artistic references (albeit the book is strewn through with 1980s music – particularly power ballads), her sometimes acerbic political references to contemporary crises, her complex and sometime hard to resolve side-storylines (this is a story which is rather – perhaps too – neatly tied up) or her fey visitors (although Daniel does talk to with rivers and with a ceramic cow). The pamphlet reminds us why poetry is so important, and will be clutched to the hearts of all of us who are lucky to read it.

Maybe the ending is intended as a happy one, but I was left wondering if history was about to repeat itself.