The Twisted Heart book. Rebecca Gowers writes beautifully. Her characters are real, with just the right amount of quirkiness, and they have some wonderful thought and exchanges.

The Twisted Heart book. Their various relationships are caught perfectly too: the domestic intimacy of Kit and her flatmate Michaela; the unbreakable bond between Joe and his brother; the awkward, evolving relationship between Kit and Joe.

The Twisted Heart is both a hugely enjoyable novel about the challenges of love and a startling exploration of previously . Brilliantly weaving these threads together, it confirms Gowers as one of the most exciting voices in Britain today.

Brilliantly weaving these threads together, it confirms Gowers as one of the most exciting voices in Britain today.

The plot resolution is no big surprise, but Gowers has a lovely, light style which carries the reader along. She has a gift for capturing the awkward moments of a relationship in its early days, those disjointed conversations where we nearly, but never quite, say exactly what we mean. She also writes her characters with affection, so we care about them and want them to be happy.

Until, as Kit drew closer, she realised that the old bird was fumbling with her glasses case. Kit was haunted by this error. In fact, all week, for long stretches of daytime hours, she had felt muddled and despondent, not to mention at night. At least on the Thursday, Orson had turned in a reasonable essay.

of Nancy in Oliver Twist. The romance is between gangly Oxford postgrad Kit and brutish Joe, a dark-horse maths lecturer with whom she attends dance classes and solves the crime

of Nancy in Oliver Twist. The romance is between gangly Oxford postgrad Kit and brutish Joe, a dark-horse maths lecturer with whom she attends dance classes and solves the crime. It doesn't quite cohere, but it's fresh and clever and very funny, apart from Joe's brother, Humpty, who is so determinedly eccentric that he comes close to unbalancing the novel, making us wonder if what feels so original about it is really any more than a smokescreen for cliche.

Kit, an Oxford Doctorate student, is absorbed in her thesis; on the verge of a major discovery, her once isolated life becomes full of people complicating things, not least Joe, who seems surprisingly interested in her. A tender romance, an intriguing real-life literary mystery, and lovely writing touched with Dickensian elements makes this an easy and engaging read.

Rebecca Gowers studied English at Oxford and Cambridge. She is the author of The Swamp of Death, shortlisted for the CWA nonfiction Golden Dagger Award, and of two novels, When to Walk and The Twisted Heart, both longlisted for the Orange Prize. Bibliografische Informationen. Rebecca Gowers, Ernest Gowers.

Used availability for Rebecca Gowers's The Twisted Heart.

By (author) Rebecca Gowers. Rebecca Gowers is the author of The Swamp of Death (Hamish Hamilton), the true story of a fatal showdown between a late Victorian conman and a corrupt detective, shortlisted for the 2004 CWA non-fiction Golden Dagger Award, and of a debut novel, When to Walk (Canongate), longlisted for the Orange Prize, 2007.