©2025 Fable Group Inc.
3.0 

The Other Side of You

By Salley Vickers
The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers digital book - Fable

Why read on Fable?

Discover social reading

Chat inside the ebook with emojis, comments and more

Annotate with notes, tabs, and highlights

Share or keep your notes private with our annotation features

Support the World Literacy Foundation

We donate 20% of every book sale to help children learn to read

Publisher Description

“Vickers has turned a thwarted romance in to a serious page-turner.” —Time Out
 
For psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Dr. David McBride, death exerts an unusual draw. Despite his profession, he has never come to terms with the violent accident that took his brother's life, a trauma that has shaped his life. But when a failed suicide, Elizabeth Cruikshank, comes into his care, he finds the deepest reaches of his suppressed history being reactivated. Elizabeth is mysteriously reticent about her own past and it is not until David recalls a painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio that she finally yields her story. As she recounts the chance encounter which took her to Rome, and her tragic tale of passion and betrayal, David begins to find a strange and disturbing reflection of his own loss in the haunted “other side” of this elusive woman. 
 
In distinctive, graceful prose, Salley Vickers explores the ways both love and art can penetrate the complexities of the human heart, to invade and change our being, and the possibilities of regeneration through another's vision and understanding.
 
“[A] hypnotic chronicle of quiet desperation . . . .Vickers . . . delivers wrenching conflicts of love within and outside of marriage.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“[A] moving, utterly engrossing novel.” —The Guardian
 
“If you enjoy the work of Marilynne Robinson, Penelope Fitzgerald, James Salter or Anita Brookner, you should be reading Vickers. All these authors reflect, with grace and gravity, on life's moments of sorrowful epiphany.” – Michael Dirda, Washington Post

21 Reviews

3.0
“4.5* It's my second book from this author and she is fast becoming one of my favourites. There is a kind of haunting and poetic quality to her prose. Not much action as such but somehow the story and thoughts that result from it keep playing in your mind long after you've finished reading it. This moving tale revolves around a woman, who has just failed suicide, and her psychiatrist. The latter tries to reach her with difficulty, but one day succeeds when they accidentally start talking about art, and in particular Caravaggio's paintings. Although the subject matter might sound depressing, let me reassure you it is anything but. On the contrary, I found it refreshing. The book doesn't promise the answer to life - just a tale about characters on a journey of discovery. It is simply written but with an elegance that is very touching. No long discourse on theories but thought-provoking discussions, such as the ones about some big misconceptions our societies seem to suffer from, and even taboos, such as the ones about death, suffering, and mental illness. We’d rather hide and forget about it. I particularly loved the following quote, exclamation from one of the protagonists, which sounded so true: "Trouble with this age is it's got hold of the crackpot notion you can do away with suffering... Someone says, "help, help, it hurts", and they hand out a bloody drug and say, "there, there, this'll make it better". That's sticking-plaster mentality. It doesn't make the bloody awfulness go away. It just covers it up. Pathology. The logos of suffering, or the word on suffering. Well, the "word" on suffering is it has to be bloody well suffered, not covered up”. Salley Vickers, who used to be a University Lit teacher and then a psychoanalyst before turning to writing, puts together a strange mixture of literature and psychology, but it works and even complement each other. She also seems to bring art and Italy into her stories one way or the other. On a funny note, the psychologist of the story is quite obsessed with Jane Austen's work at the beginning and compares people to characters...”
“I hated this book so much”

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB