It is with great pleasure that Europa Editions makes this Booker Prize short-listed novel newly available to the legions of Gardam fans. Originally published in Great Britain in 1978, the novel describes Margaret Marsh's coming of age one summer between the world wars. Caught in the backwash of a fervently religious father, a mother bitterly nostalgic for what might have been, the tea and sympathy of some thoroughly secular neighbors and the bawdy jokes of her nanny Lydia, Margaret's world hurtles towards a shattering moment of truth. Drama, tragedy and a touch of farce lend themselves to Gardam's typically eloquent prose. With subtlety and precision, God on the Rocks provides an intimate portrait of the tensions that divide men and women, present and past, and the love and sorrow that lingers throughout. Jane Gardam's reputation in the United States has been greatly enlarged by the critical acclaim and commercial success garnered by her latest novels, last year's Man in the Wooden Hat and her masterpiece Old Filth. Now, newcomers and fans alike can enjoy the pleasure of the splendid writing that established Gardam's considerable canon some four decades ago.

Jane Gardam
Jane Gardam has been twice awarded the Whitbread Prize and was also a Booker prize finalist. She is winner of the David Higham Prize, the Royal Society for Literature’s Winifred Holtby Prize, the Katherine Mansfield Prize, and the Silver Pen Award from PEN. Her novels include God on the Rocks, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Old Filth, finalist for the Orange Prize; The Man in the Wooden Hat, finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Last Friends, finalist for the Folio Award. She lives in the south of England near the sea. In 1999 Jane Gardam was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in recognition of a distinguished literary career.

• Dec 30 2010
  The Christian Science Monitor: "I haven't read a bad, or even mediocre, book by Gardam yet, and God on the Rocks offers plenty of the wit and humanity that are her trademarks."
  
• Nov 28 2010
  The Boston Globe: "Gardam orchestrates the subtle evolution of character and plot with Olympian omniscience and wry humor."
  
• Nov 10 2010
  Barnes and Noble Review: "Those who've yet to encounter the magic of this marvelous storyteller are in for an even bigger treat."
  
• Nov 3 2010
  The Huffington Post: "Gardam is a unique and wonderful writer."
  
• Oct 29 2010
  The New York Times: "We are in the hands of a master storyteller."
  
• Sep 1 2010
  Library Journal: "A treasure."