Three Novels: The Blue Flower; The Bookshop; Offshore

Gathered together for the first time are three of Penelope Fitzgerald's most beloved novels: The Blue Flower, The Bookshop, and Offshore. The Blue Flower: Chosen by the New York Times Book Review as one of the eleven best books of 1997, this magical novel recounts the curious obsession of the Romantic poet Novalis for his one true philosophy -- the plain and simple twelve-year-old Sophie. A masterpiece. . . How does she do it? (A. S. Byatt) Quite astonishing . . . Her greatest triumph (New York Times Book Review). The Bookshop: In 1959, Florence Green, a kindhearted widow with a small inheritance, risks everything to open a bookshop -- the only bookshop -- in the seaside town of Hardborough. She must contend with a leaky roof, a poltergeist, and, what's more, ruthless opposition from the self-proclaimed first lady of culture, Violet Gamart. A brilliant little book (Boston Globe). Offshore: Winner of the Booker Prize, this acclaimed novel features an eccentric cast of characters living in houseboats on the Thames, rising and falling with the great river's tides. The novelistic equivalent of a Turner watercolor (Washington Post).