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Rachel Seiffert is one of Virago's most critically acclaimed contemporary novelists. Her first book, The Dark Room, (2001) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and made into the feature film Lore. In 2003, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, and in 2011 she received the EM Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Field Study, her collection of short stories published in 2004, received an award from PEN International. Her second novel, Afterwards (2007) third novel The Walk Home (2014), and fourth novel A Boy in Winter (2017), were all longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her books have been published in eighteen languages.
I read Once the Deed is Done with great pleasure . . . Once again, Rachel Seiffert uncovers a little regarded realm of history, here exploring the pain and confusion of displaced persons at the end of the Second World War which hardly any novels have yet done. Great characters - taking us deep into the physical challenges and moral quandaries of the time -- Tim Pears I love that her novels take me to unexplored places and times. The forgotten period of the DP (Displaced People) camps in the immediate aftermath of the war has always fascinated me and she has brought to life a complex interaction between survivors on both sides with humanity and compassion -- Linda Grant The language has a directness that wouldn't be out of place in a children's story . . . it gives it, despite the historical precision, something of the feel of myth or fable. A complex, intelligent, deeply compassionate novel about the unglamorous aftermath of war. The research and imaginative recreation of the period is so impressive. A brilliant piece of story-telling - stubbornly hopeful. I hope it finds lots of readers. It deserves to and I think it will. -- Andrew Miller
