Shooting
Butterflies
'Her touch is light but acute, her tone easy but flecked with
real, black sharpness ... a perceptive study of human relations
and motivations, painful, funny and fresh'
The Observer
''The heroines of her novels are so strong and so independent
of their lovers ... readers will flock to support her now her
secret's out'
The Guardian
'A moving tale ... this poignant novel is a reminder
of how we look for love in all the wrong places'
Hello
In the dramatic and arresting opening to her brilliant new
novel, Marika Cobbold draws the reader into the absorbing life
of Grace Shield ... Shooting Butterflies is a moving tale of
love lost and found and of second
chances ... a heart-wrenching
tale that
you won't be able to put down'
Woman's Way, Dublin
'The gripping and moving story of one woman's emotional journey.'
The Times
I was out walking in the country one summer's day when I came
upon a large heap of horse manure on the path in front of me.
I was about to step round, nose wrinkled, eyes averted but
I paused instead, transfixed by the sight of a beautiful orange
and gold butterfly its wings fluttering as it clung onto the
heap of manure. That, I thought, just about sums up life.
I've been told by some people that Shooting Butterflies is
a rather dark novel but I think it's about hope. We often here
of how tragedy may lurk behind a glittering façade.
Well, Grace, my main protagonist claims that sometimes a perfectly
good life might be hiding behind a tragic façade. Grace
is a photographer. She knows all about the difference an angle,
a sliver of light, can make to the picture.
Bad things happen to Grace - bad things happen, that's life.
But in most aspects of her life, Grace has choices. Having
choices is something that we might take for granted but for
women of previous generations it was all too often an unachievable
luxury as Grace realises through her developing friendship
with ninety year old Louisa. Louisa Blackstaff; forgotten wife
of a great man.
To me, humour is the saving grace of mankind and Grace is
funny. I know I wrote her, but she really is quite funny. Like
many authors, I am constantly frustrated by the gulf between
that which I dream of writing and that which I actually manage
to produce, but with Shooting Butterflies I think the gulf
has narrowed just a little.
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