An Archive of Happiness, published by Penned in the Margins in September 2020, has been longlisted for the Highland Book Prize alongside Ali Smith, Kapka Kassabova and others…
An Archive of Happiness is mostly set over the course of one day, during the Avens family’s annual get-together on the Summer Solstice. Theirs is a fractured family, broken by arguments, by things said and not said, by a mother who left and a father who was left behind. What happens on this day will force them to cleave together to survive and redraw the traditional bonds of family.
You can order the book directly from Penned in the Margins or from your favourite Indie Bookshop.
'This is a wonderful book. Tender and insightful on the love and tensions on one crucial day in the life of a family.' - Sophie Ward
'Poignant, moving story of a fractured family restoring bonds in their trysting place. EK Reeder has placed her tale perfectly in the physical and emotional landscape of Scotland today. No-one can accuse her of tartanising. This is real life in the Highlands of Scotland.' - Malcolm Alexander
‘Lyrical prose, with delicately beautiful descriptions that leave the senses reeling and take the reader’s breath away over and over again.’ - Celia Anderson
'An Archive of Happiness is a poignant, multi-layered exploration of family relationships brilliantly revealed. A haunting story told in exquisite prose' - Ruth Hogan
‘This is such a big-hearted, intricate and compelling novel: it is as robust and delicate as the landscapes it inhabits. Reeder tells a story of loss, fracture and repair, every sentence infused with both clear-sightedness and love.' - Jenn Ashworth
'An Archive of Happiness is a beautifully weaved together novel that carries within its daring structure the real sense of a family who are struggling and striving to live their truest selves.’ - Helen McClory
'An exquisite novel that resonates with tender, forgiving truth' - Helen Sedgwick
'Elizabeth Reeder's stately prose contrasts with the perfectly observed, everyday minutiae of a tense family reunion in an Archive of Happiness - a modern-day To The Lighthouse when it comes to the sensation of time constantly slipping through the fingers even while drawing out into an eternity of moments.' - Harriet Walker
‘Knocked out cold by Elizabeth Reeder’s An Archive Of Happiness, a magnetic storm cycle of a novel. Nettle-stung family epic.’ - Margot Douaihy
‘I can't think of a more precise rendering of the unsentimental work of love.’ - Johanna Linsley
