Two Hours - by Alba Arikha (Paperback)

About the Book

Two Hours is an exceptional novel. Witty, perceptive, and profoundly humane, this is the work of a writer at the height of her powers.

Book Synopsis

"Someone rang my husband. Your wife is not well, the person said. Your wife is not well."

When Clara's parents transplant her from Paris to New York at the age of sixteen, a fleeting encounter with a young man seems, for a brief period, to open up new possibilities. As she strives to fulfil her vocation as a writer, and as she struggles in later years with the cumulative constraints of an unhappy marriage, Clara's imagination is strangely haunted by a life that might have been.

Tracing Clara's story from her adolescence to her experience of motherhood, and then through to a pivotal bid for freedom, Two Hours is an exceptional novel. Witty, perceptive, and profoundly humane, this is the work of a writer at the height of her powers.

Review Quotes

Alba Arikha successfully captures the violent tension of being at the threshold of adulthood and yearning for a freedom that is just out of reach.--Oonagh Devitt Tremblay "Times Literary Supplement"

Thrilling as any romance.--Claire Allfree "The Independent (UK)"

I loved Alba Arikha's Two Hours. Clear and sharp as an engraver's burin.--Adam Foulds

Wonderfully precise, enthralling and revelatory, an X-ray of the emotional life.--Simon Callow

Two Hours is a work of chiaroscuro. An intricate portrait of a woman's life captured in fleeting bursts of memory. Fragments of light and shadow. In a series of artfully woven moments, Arikha tells a story that lingers beyond the margins and will linger with the reader long after its conclusion.
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--Lydia Waites "The Lincoln Review"

Fascinating. . .[The] prose is wonderful, and the way that she writes about relationships is really moving--Ashley Baker "Air Mail Podcast"

Arikha inhabits Clara with such emotional authenticity...that when she makes her final bid for freedom you'll want to hold her hand and run.--Sally Morris "Daily Mail"

Covering almost 40 years in 160 pages, it has scope and precision. . . So intensely delivered that I had to set the book down to take a breath.--John Self "The Guardian"

A beautifully written, lyrical and unflinching account of a woman's life, from teenage love to maturity and motherhood.--Vesna Goldsworthy

Alba Arikha takes us magically into the very heart of a woman's experiences--her loves, her art, her fears, and that brief, ecstatic moment that has watermarked her entire life.--Edmund White

Her book Major/Minor is in my view a small masterpiece, and with Two Hours I believe Alba Arikha is making something of similar stature.--Rachel Cusk

Out of a seemingly casual array of swift vignettes, fleeting encounters, cityscapes caught on the fly, and sudden, bright shocks of emotion, Alba Arikha has constructed a radiant story of loss and love, entrapment and freedom, and the strange patterns of fate and desire that shape our lives. Every piece of her mosaic shimmers with acute observation, and the whole comes together to form a powerfully singular account of the universal struggle to live a life of integrity and meaning. It is a rare and fine accomplishment.--James Lasdun

About the Author

Alba Arikha is a novelist, poet, and musician. Her books include Where to Find Me (longlisted for the 2020 Wingate Prize) and the acclaimed memoir Major/Minor.