Oranges are Not the Only Fruit

Available for the first time as a deluxe, paper over board hardcover with sprayed edges, gold foil, spot gloss, and colored end papers. "To read Jeanette Winterson is to love her."--O, the Oprah Magazine The 40th anniversary edition of a beloved modern classic and pioneering work of autofiction--a funny, poignant exploration of a young girl's quirky passage into adulthood--with a new introduction and afterword by the author Jeanette Winterson's extraordinary career began at the age of twenty-five with the publication of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. An international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Whitbread Award for Best First Fiction, it is considered a classic of contemporary literature and taught widely around the world, in courses ranging from core undergraduate classes to women's studies and queer studies. Jeanette is a bright and rebellious orphan who is adopted into an evangelical household in the dour, industrial north of England. Her youth is spent embroidering grim religious mottoes and shaking her little tambourine for Jesus. But as this budding missionary comes of age and comes to terms with her unorthodox sexuality, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household collapses. Jeanette's insistence on listening to truths of her own heart and mind--and on reporting them with wit and passion--makes for an unforgettable chronicle of an extraordinary passage into adulthood.

About the Author :
Born in Manchester, England, JEANETTE WINTERSON is the author of more than twenty books, including the national bestseller Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and The Passion. She has won many prizes including the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, and the Stonewall Award.

Review :
Praise for Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit "A striking, quirky, delicate, and intricate work . . . Winterson has mastered both comedy and tragedy in this rich little novel. . . . Winterson's great gift is evident." --The Washington Post Book World "A daring, unconventional comic novel . . . by employing quirky anecdotes, which are told with romping humor, and by splicing various parables into the narrative, Winterson allows herself the dangerous luxury of writing a novel that refuses to rely on rousing plot devices. . . . A fascinating debut . . . A penetrating novel." --Chicago Tribune "Winterson's voice, with its idiosyncratic wit and sensitivity, is one you've never heard before." --Ms. "The overwhelming impression of her work is one of remarkable self-confidence, and she evidently thrives on risk.... As good as Poe: it dares you to laugh and stares you down." --The New York Review of Books "An explosively imaginative writer." --The London Free Press "She is a master of her material, a writer [of] great talent." --Muriel Spark "Many consider her to be the best living writer in this language." --Evening Standard "The most interesting writer I have read in twenty years." --Gore Vidal