Recommended: A Degree of Uncertainty

Our selection for December is…

A Degree of Uncertainty by Nicola K Smith

About the book

A Cornish town is slowly fracturing under the weight of its growing university…

Prominent businessman, Harry Manchester will not stand by and see his beloved hometown turned into a student ghetto — and many residents and students are relying on him.

But Harry’s stance sets him on a collision course with Dawn Goldberg, formidable Vice Chancellor of Poltowan University, who is set on doubling its size and cementing her career legacy.

As Harry’s marriage falls apart, his business comes under threat, and fellow traders accuse him of halting progress, Dawn is battling her own demons, not least the need to live up to her late father’s expectations and erase the memory of his tragic death.

There can only be one victor in this battle for the soul of a close-knit community…

About the Author

Nicola Smith is a writer and journalist based in Cornwall. She contributes to a number of newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Times, Guardian.co.uk, BBC.co.uk, Coast and Cornwall Today.

A Degree of Uncertainty is Nicola’s first published book. She says that the idea percolated for some time, fuelled by a regular torrent of letters in the famous Falmouth Packet. This prompted her to interrogate the impact of universities on local communities…

Featuring the fictional Cornish town of Poltowan, A Degree of Uncertainty takes some real and pressing issues and reimagines them, telling the story of a divided community through the lives of a series of imagined characters…

Nicola’s book is available for £7 online or in the Terrace Gallery Shop in Penryn

Previous book recommendations:
Zed and the Cormorants by Clare Owen
The Draw of the Sea by Wyl Menmuir
The Lip by Charlie Carroll
Mothers Boy by Patrick Gale

Categorised in: Bookclub

This post was written by samstone