Faulty Design

Isabel Montgomery in the Guardian judged Robin Black’s IF I LOVED YOU, I WOULD TELL YOU THIS excellent apart from one crucial aspect:

If you judge a book by its cover, you’re likely to dismiss this collection as easy-reading schmaltz. The youngish blonde in broderie anglaise frock hunched in a pose of mild distress does nothing to suggest the emotional depth of Robin Black’s territory, nor the elegance with which she describes moments of reckoning for her characters – among them a blind girl who sees more than her parents imagine and the portrait painter coming to terms with mortality.

When it comes to book cover designs, it seems the laws of the universe no longer apply – if you look at the US cover on the right, Picador apparently believe that the English are more corny than the Yanks.

_________________________________________________________________

Visit The Omnivore for our latest book, film and theatre review roundups