{"product_id":"an-awfully-big-adventure","title":"An Awfully Big Adventure","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBy:\u003c\/strong\u003e Beryl Bainbridge\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublished by McNally Editions, 2026-03-10\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA “dark and brilliant” story of the secrets, sex, and violence playing out behind the scenes of a repertory theater troupe in postwar Liverpool: “Never before has showbusiness been revealed as less romantic.” (Patrick Skene Catling, \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLiverpool, 1950. Against the grimy backdrop of the gray postwar city, a shabby, scandal-steeped repertory theater company rehearses for their Christmas performance of \u003ci\u003ePeter Pan\u003c\/i\u003e. Treading the boards for the first time is sixteen-year-old Stella Bradshaw, ambitious, idealistic, and still overwhelmingly innocent. She falls hard for the rakish, monocled director, Meredith Potter, but, unable to attract his attentions—and not understanding why he’s spending \u003ci\u003equite\u003c\/i\u003e so much time with their male colleagues—she turns to another to initiate her in the ways of love. Enter the celebrated P. L. O’Hara, their dashing leading man who’s nursing secrets of his own. When the curtain is up, fantastical entertainment abounds, but backstage a very different drama is playing out: a pitch-black comedy of indiscretion, intrigue, and eventual tragedy.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eShortlisted for the Booker Prize, and dusted with that magical “air of Pinteresque menace and Sparkian malice [that] lingers around the margins of [all of Beryl Bainbridge’s] fiction,” (Michiko Katutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eAn Awfully Big Adventure\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the author’s very best—and best-loved—novels.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Phoenix Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47132500656297,"sku":"PHBK-9781961341920","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0578\/9899\/1785\/files\/8629263482886.jpg?v=1780114329","url":"https:\/\/myti.com\/products\/an-awfully-big-adventure","provider":"Myti","version":"1.0","type":"link"}