Near to the Wild Heart opens with a scene of the child Joana playing in the garden, making up poems for her father. Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. She is frequently compared to animals: over the course of the book Lispector compares her to a bird, a snake, a wildcat, a horse, and a dog. She commits transgressive acts—as a child she throws a book at an old man's head, for example, and as a married woman she leaves her husband, Otávio, and greets the news of his adultery—he has made another woman, his
When Will There Be Good News? Reviews were generally positive: The novel was adapted for television for the BBC in 2011 as the final two episodes of the first series of "Case Histories". When Will There Be Good News? When Will There Be Good News? is a 2008 crime novel by Kate Atkinson and won the 2009 'Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year' at the British Book Awards. It is the third to involve retired private detective Jackson Brodie and is set in and around Edinburgh. It begins though in Devon where six-year-old Joanna witnesses the brutal murder of her mother, sister and brother