{"product_id":"portraits-at-the-palace-of-han-smith-9781399814256","title":"Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking: Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2024","description":"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2024\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Tender and merciless . . . a hallucinatory window into what it means to excavate the past in a world committed to its erasure' ABIGAIL SHINN, Goldsmiths Prize Judge \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 'Kaleidoscopic and beguiling . . . A singular and thrilling debut that shows what happens when objective truth and meaning are drowned in the shifting river of history and politics' ANDREW McMILLAN \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A novel full of hopeful glitter - and one I know I will return to' A K BLAKEMORE, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 'Insightful, affecting and assured . . . Written with a poetry as defamiliarising as it is rich' OISÍN FAGAN \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 'Strange, intriguing, exhilarating' CAMILLA GRUDOVA \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The almost daughter is almost normal, because she knows how to know and also not know. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e She knows and does not know, for instance, about the barracks by the athletics field, and about the lonely woman she visits each week. She knows - almost - about ghosts, and their ghosts, and she knows not to have questions about them. She knows to focus on being a woman: on training her body and dreaming only of escape. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Then, the almost daughter meets Oksana. Oksana is not even almost normal, and the questions she has are not normal at all. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePortraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a young woman coming of age in a town reckoning with its brutal past, for readers of \u003ci\u003eMilkman \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eA Girl is a Half-Formed Thing\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Han Smith\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1399814257\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781399814256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e John Murray Publishers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/03\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Han Smith","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48453599691007,"sku":"9781399814256","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_809b20cd-6ad3-4e57-919a-18cb9684bc0e.jpg?v=1777301115","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/portraits-at-the-palace-of-han-smith-9781399814256","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}