# The Clothes On Their Backs

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/linda-grant/the-clothes-on-their-backs

![The Clothes On Their Backs](https://quivercdn.com/covers/virago/linda-grant/the-clothes-on-their-backs_978-18-4408-542-2.jpg?v=2026-04-30%2004%3A09%3A08)

- Authors: [Linda Grant](https://www.bookquiver.com/linda-grant)
- Language: en_GB
- Published: 2008-10-02

## Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sándor so violently unwelcome in her parents' home? This is a novel about survival - both banal and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live. Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise and tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.

## Editions

### The Clothes On Their Backs

- Publisher: virago
- ISBN: 978-18-4408-542-2
- Pages: 1
- Published: 2009-04-02
- Language: en_GB

### The Clothes On Their Backs

- Publisher: virago
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-07-4811-081-0
- Published: 2008-10-02
- Language: en_GB