Cover artwork: Andrew Foley
Waking each morning alone, John Stack finds solace in long, alcohol-fuelled walks through the unchanging landscape of a Gloucestershire valley. Linda, his wife, has left him and his once golden reputation as an art dealer has faded. The only glimmer of light for John comes through the weekend visits of his twelve-year-old daughter Bryony. An encounter with a beautiful and enigmatic neighbour may offer the chance of a new beginning for John, if only he can quieten his suspicions about the death of her husband. Told in sparkling poetic language, It’s Just the Beating of My Heart is a story of loss, heartbreak and hope in a world peopled by ghosts.
‘This is a quiet novel which progresses at a pace as gentle as a wide brook but with the attached depth of still waters [...] It is also a book about the consolations of nature. Stack finds palliative care in “the great canopies of elm and beech, the ancient gnarled trunks of oak and hawthorn, the generosity of walnut-tree and chestnut”. His solitary walks through the Gloucestershire woodland prove an effective motif for a tale of a man searching for a new path.’
Christian House, in The Independent on Sunday, 4 April 2010
‘Richard Aronowitz’s book [...] exploits to a large degree our complacent assumptions about what can happen in a conventional literary novel – or how psychology operates.’
Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, Friday 12 March 2010
‘There are moments of beauty, but what he really aims to show, amongst the teeming life of the valley and forests, is the deep loneliness of Stack.’
William Rycroft, Just William’s Luck, 26 April 2010
‘Aronwitz writes well throughout, and the integration of story with location makes the book somehow seem very English. This is a quality book, and although there is little crime in the novel, the clever plot development reminded me rather of writers like Ruth Rendell or Frances Fyfield.’
Tom Cunliffe, A Common Reader, 8 April 2010
‘I had the impression that I was reading the mind of a man who had nothing to live for and was irrevocably set on a path to self obliteration.’
John Baker, John Baker’s Blog, 24 March 2010
It’s Just the Beating of My Heart costs £8.99 and was published in March 2010.
ISBN: 978-1-906601-13-3
Richard Aronowitz was born in 1970 and grew up in rural Gloucestershire. He studied at the universities of Durham, Heidelberg and London and now works at Sotheby’s. His debut novel, Five Amber Beads, was published by Flambard in 2006 and his eagerly awaited second novel, It’s Just the Beating of My Heart, was published in March 2010.
His poems have appeared in The Guardian and The Independent, and are anthologised in Anvil New Poets 3. He is married and lives in Cambridge.
Website: www.richardaronowitz.com
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