Here We Are (2020)

by Graham Swift

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"It's the summer of 1959, and something magical can be witnessed at the end of the pier in beach town Brighton, England. Jack Robbins, Ronnie Deane, and Evie White are performing in a seaside variety show, starring as Jack Robinson the compere comedian, and The Great Pablo and Eve: a magic act. By the end of the summer, Evie's glinting engagement ring will be flung to the bottom of the ocean and one of the trifecta will vanish forever. All three friends begin their path toward the end of Brighton's pier early in life. Evie and Jack's mothers always trumpeting the support that is trademark of stage mothers, while Ronnie's mother sends her son out in the child evacuations to Penny and Eric Lawrence for safety from the London blitz. It's within the safety and love of Evergrene, the Lawrences' estate, that magic creeps into Ronnie's life for the first time and starts the intricate intertwining of fate, chance, and show business. Magic and reality share the stage in this masterly and devastating story that pulls back the curtain on the power of love, family, and the touchstones of our memories"--… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 13 (next | show all)

Somehow this book just completely failed to make any sort of impression on me at all. It follows three people who are in show business as magicians in the 1950s, and flashes back to their childhoods and forward to their old age. The main character was an evacuee in WWII as a child, and was sent to live in an idyllic home where his host family taught him to be a stage magician. He later recruits a couple to join his act, and the relationship between the three of them gets complicated.

I think the book was fine? The characters were reasonably interesting and well-developed? The writing was pretty good? I dunno... I don't really have any complaints about the book, but I don't really have any praise for it either. (

)

Gwendydd | Oct 22, 2023 |

Graham Swift’s latest novel is Here We Are (Virago), set in the late Fifties and early Sixties and in which three end of pier performers find their off-stage lives entwined in complex ways as a result of their evolving circumstances. Swift skilfully moves us backwards and forwards in time while building our emotional connection with the characters. It’s a simple story at its heart but layered with complexity and as much magic as the illusion acts that are portrayed on the stage. Not following the recent trend from his peers of the doorstep, life-story tomes, it’s a slim, perfectly formed novel which belies the amount and quality of its ingredients along with their expert combination and smooth, clever, and easily digested result. (

)

davidroche | Jan 12, 2023 |

Well-written. Swift as ever in the shadows. Reminds me of a short story of his where the magician folds himself into himself until he disappears. So is this the re-working of a short story? Certainly feels like a short story. (

)

adrianburke | May 14, 2021 |

Disappointing. (

)

c_why | Mar 25, 2021 |

Magic is the driving force of this novel and in Graham Swift’s hands it results in a spellbinding story. Evie White recollects events from 50 years ago that have continued to haunt her and that changed her life irrevocably. In late 1958 she became the assistant to Ronnie Deane, known as Pablo, a struggling magician, and they begin rehearsing for the following summer season of variety on Brighton pier. Their appearance has been arranged by Ronnie’s ex-army friend Jack Robinson who was the show’s compere. The early life of the three leading characters is deftly sketched by Swift, their differing backgrounds and how they all came together in 1959. It makes for an intriguing tale and Evie’s reminiscences are haunting as she reveals how she has lived with and lost the two men in her life, and you cannot help but be moved by her regrets and sorrow.

camharlow2 | Dec 20, 2020 |

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Gallimard, Folio (7101)

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist – Fiction – 2021)

Distinctions

Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (2020)

NPR: Books We Love (2020)

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Grandi illusioni

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Here We Are

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2020

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▾Book descriptions

"It's the summer of 1959, and something magical can be witnessed at the end of the pier in beach town Brighton, England. Jack Robbins, Ronnie Deane, and Evie White are performing in a seaside variety show, starring as Jack Robinson the compere comedian, and The Great Pablo and Eve: a magic act. By the end of the summer, Evie's glinting engagement ring will be flung to the bottom of the ocean and one of the trifecta will vanish forever. All three friends begin their path toward the end of Brighton's pier early in life. Evie and Jack's mothers always trumpeting the support that is trademark of stage mothers, while Ronnie's mother sends her son out in the child evacuations to Penny and Eric Lawrence for safety from the London blitz. It's within the safety and love of Evergrene, the Lawrences' estate, that magic creeps into Ronnie's life for the first time and starts the intricate intertwining of fate, chance, and show business. Magic and reality share the stage in this masterly and devastating story that pulls back the curtain on the power of love, family, and the touchstones of our memories"--

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It’s the summer of 1959, and something magical can be witnessed at the end of the pier in beach town Brighton, England. Jack Robbins, Ronnie Deane, and Evie White are performing in a seaside variety show, starring as Jack Robinson the compere comedian, and The Great Pablo and Eve: a magic act. By the end of the summer, Evie’s glinting engagement ring will be flung to the bottom of the ocean and one of the trifecta will vanish forever.
All three friends begin their path toward the end of Brighton’s pier early in life. Evie and Jack’s mothers always trumpeting the support that is trademark of stage mothers, while Ronnie’s mother sends her son out in the child evacuations to Penny and Eric Lawrence for safety from the London blitz. It’s within the safety and love of Evergrene, the Lawrences’ estate, that magic creeps into Ronnie’s life for the first time and starts the intricate intertwining of fate, chance, and show business.
Magic and reality share the stage in this masterly and devastating story that pulls back the curtain on the power of love, family, and the touchstones of our memories.

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