{"product_id":"the-daffodil-days","title":"The Daffodil Days","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"This virtuoso, deeply researched and utterly convincing debut achieves something quite extraordinary... an astonishing achievement, its prose supple and intelligent and exact... ambitious and insightful.\" \n\u003cb\u003e --\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Helen Bain writes like John Constable painted: each minute detail is observed and rendered, creating a complete and magnificent picture... Bain has achieved brilliant and authentic characterizations... best of all for us Plath junkies are the jewel-like glimpses of the tall lady in red--full of tension. A very clever debut novel.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eAirmail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Bain deftly employs her vast research with prose that feels tactful, subtle, and assured. Readers familiar with Plath and Hughes will delight in the additional layers of meaning... a richly drawn debut about the small-town folks who orbited the 20th century's most famous literary couple.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"I adored this novel. It's beautifully written, intricately plotted, wears the precision of its research lightly, and is exquisitely moving. A very special book.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eLucy Caldwell, author of \u003ci\u003eThese Days\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"A pointillistic, unsentimental, and intimate portrait of Sylvia Plath through the eyes of those whose lives she brushed up against in rural Devon. Helen Bain renders Plath's humor, wit, resilience, and heartbreak from new angles, at once strange and familiar. Not a word is out of place. Full of understated lyricism and a deep respect for Plath and her world, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days\u003c\/i\u003e is an exquisite and spellbinding debut.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eHeather Clark, author of\u003ci\u003e Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"A breathtaking first novel: elegant, insightful, meticulously crafted, and ingeniously structured. Helen Bain has achieved something remarkable here, demythologizing what we think we know about Sylvia Plath through the glancing perspectives of the figures in her orbit. These incidental characters are rendered with as much richness and complexity as Plath's, and their entanglement is captivating.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eBenjamin Wood, Booker Prize-longlisted author of \u003ci\u003eSeascraper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"A luminous, deeply researched debut, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days\u003c\/i\u003e reimagines Sylvia Plath's Court Green period through a chorus of village voices--letting the known story fall away until what remains feels bracingly human and close. Helen Bain's prose is exact and alive, and the novel builds with a quietly devastating inexorable force you can't look away from.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Paula McLain, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Wife\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSkylark\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"An exceptional novel, with shades of Hilary Mantel. Helen Bain takes the familiar and makes it utterly new. I loved it. I miss it.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMeg Mason, author of \u003ci\u003eSorrow and Bliss\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Beautiful, affecting and deeply impressive, this is an ingeniously constructed novel, told slant. I loved it.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eLouise Kennedy, author of \u003ci\u003eTrespasses\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Helen Bain has produced something quietly miraculous. \n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days\u003c\/i\u003e brings the characters in a rural community to life... the depth of Bain's meticulous, loving research is never obtrusive. It's a captivating debut: a compassionate, perceptive and truly wonderful book.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMiranda Seymour, author of \u003ci\u003eI Used to Live Here Once\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Helen Bain explores Sylvia Plath's life in reverse while also, cleverly and masterfully, foreshadowing future events... simply delicious.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cb\u003ePeter K. Steinberg, editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Prose of Sylvia Plath\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHelen Bain received her PhD in creative writing from King's College London and has master's degrees in modern and contemporary literature and creative writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She was selected for The London Library Emerging Writers' Program 2020-21 and The Genesis Foundation Emerging Writers' Program 2022-23. In 2024, she won The People's Friend Comedy Fiction Prize. Currently at the \n\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, she has worked for \n\u003ci\u003eBritish Vogue \u003c\/i\u003eand \n\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and she also teaches creative writing at the university level. Helen lives in Sussex. \n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days \u003c\/i\u003eis her first novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eA stunningly inventive and poignant historical novel that follows Sylvia Plath through the final year of her life, told through the eyes of the people who knew her during her time in the English countryside.\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the early 1960s in a small English town, the church bells ring. The people go about their days, catching glimpses of one another. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e There's the local doctor, who knows more about his patients than he would sometimes prefer. There's the young assistant at the dress shop, who understands that the ladies who come there for a new outfit are often hoping to find a new self. There are the men who ring the tower bells at the church three times a week, the notes, harmonious and clashing, rippling out across the rooftops of the town. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Among all these lives, one young couple moves into focus. New to the town with their small daughter, they have escaped London for a quieter existence at Court Green, the thatched house beside the church. The life they intend to build--out of secondhand furniture stenciled with hearts and flowers, expertly cooked suppers for weekend guests, and devotion to the work that matters to them both--will be a good and happy one. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days\u003c\/i\u003e depicts a pivotal year in the marriage of 20th-century literature's most infamous couple, primarily the wife: Sylvia Plath. It is a kaleidoscopic portrait of this enigmatic writer, refracted through the rich inner lives of a rural community caught, if only for a moment, in her light. Here, Sylvia is capable and charismatic, vulnerable but strong, full of spirit. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For fans of literary and historical fiction, \n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days\u003c\/i\u003e offers a poignant glimpse of a life reimagined. The lasting impression is not of what breaks us but what binds us: resilience, creativity, and love.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 05\/15\/2026 (EAN 9781668208588, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/01\/2026 (EAN 9781668208588, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eBain, Helen\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHelen Bain received her PhD in creative writing from King's College London and has master's degrees in modern and contemporary literature and creative writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She was selected for The London Library Emerging Writers' Program 2020-21 and The Genesis Foundation Emerging Writers' Program 2022-23. In 2024, she won The People's Friend Comedy Fiction Prize. Currently at the \n\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, she has worked for \n\u003ci\u003eBritish Vogue \u003c\/i\u003eand \n\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, and she also teaches creative writing at the university level. Helen lives in Sussex. \n\u003ci\u003eThe Daffodil Days \u003c\/i\u003eis her first novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496192737558,"sku":"9781668208588","price":33.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781668208588.jpg?v=1783057205","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-daffodil-days","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}