Paula Hawkins (2) (1972–)
Author of The Girl on the Train
For other authors named Paula Hawkins, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Paula Hawkins was born in Zimbabwe on August 26, 1972. She studied philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford. She worked as a journalist for fifteen years and wrote a financial advice book for women entitled The Money Goddess. Her first novel, The Girl on the Train, was show more published in 2015 and was released as a feature film in 2016. She made the Hollywood Reporter's ' 25 Most Powerful Authors' 2016 list, entering at number 19. Her title, Into the Water, made the IBook Bestsellers List in 2017. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Paula Hawkins
. Salisbury, 26/8/1972 2 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hawkins, Paula
- Other names
- Silver, Amy
- Birthdate
- 1972-08-26
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe)
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
- Education
- Keble College, University of Oxford
- Occupations
- journalist
novelist - Organizations
- The Times
- Short biography
- Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before turning her hand to fiction. She lives in London. The Girl on the Train is her first thriller. Also authored nonfiction: Selling Houses, The Money Goddess, and The Life Doctor. Wrote romantic comedy fiction under the name Amy Silver.Paula Hawkins (born 26 August 1972) is a Zimbabwe-born British author, best known for her best-selling psychological thriller novel The Girl on the Train (2015). Hawkins' second thriller novel, Into the Water, was released in 2017.
Hawkins was born and raised in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe). Her father was an economics professor and financial journalist. Before moving to London in 1989 at the age of 17, Hawkins attended Arundel School, Harare, Zimbabwe then studied for her A-Levels at Collingham College, an independent college in Kensington, West London. Hawkins read philosophy, politics and economics at Keble College, University of Oxford.
She worked as a journalist for 15 years, including The Times' business sections and a number of publications on a freelance basis, and wrote a financial advice book for women, The Money Goddess. Hawkins wrote 4 romantic comedy novels under the name Amy Silver, including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista.
Hawkins then challenged herself to write a darker, more serious story. Thi s became her breakthrough novel The Girl on the Train (2015), a complex thriller, with themes of domestic violence, alcohol, and drug abuse. This took her 6 months writing full time to complete, nd she had to borrow money from her father. The novel was adapted into a film starring Emily Blunt in 2016. In November 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. She lives in South London.
Members
Reviews
I avoided this book for a long time because of all the reviews. I know the feminist in me should be appalled by how the female characters were written and I am now that it has been pointed out, I am. I did enjoy the story though. It was slow to start but I love rambling books that examine people's lives and I very much relate to imagining the lives of the random people I see along my commute. The mystery kept me guessing along the way too. I just didn't see who it was until just before the MC started figuring it out. Was the book outlandish? Yes Are the characters poorly written? Yes. Did I enjoy it anyway? Yes. This book started out at 3 stars and then I was up to 4 stars but then the big reveal came along and the book got way to soap opera-ee for me and I busted it back down to 3 stars. But it's a solid 3.… (more)
So I finished this a couple of days ago and as I went to set the rating today, I couldn't remember what it was about. So that doesn't bode well for a book. It wasn't a book that grabbed me but it was oddly compelling to finish as I wanted to know what happened. But there was a lot of time line switching and perspective change. That I just couldn't keep track with the haphazzard way I was reading---meaning I had to force myself to pick the book back up and I mainly did because I have several partially read books and I wanted to finish something...once I picked it up, it held my attention. I think it tried to hard to have a gimmick and twists. Or maybe, I'm just suffering from reader's block and nothing is good enough for me right now.… (more)
This is a solid book. It was confusing at first with various points of view but I easily fell into the rhythm of the story. Sure the characters aren't super likeable but you know what? most people in life make shitty decisions and assumptions and do stupid things. Hawkins' characters may not be likeable but they are real.
Lists
Five star books (1)
Secrets Books (1)
Luetut kirjat (1)
Female Author (1)
New Arrivals (1)
Murder Mysteries (1)
Carole's List (2)
Florida (1)
First Novels (1)
To Read (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 25,902
- Popularity
- #803
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 1,428
- ISBNs
- 402
- Languages
- 28
- Favorited
- 12
This is a great thriller and the narrator is superb. She has captured the nuances of each character’s personality perfectly, and there are many. I have a picture of each one in my mind’s eye. The author has deftly handled this story about the artist Vanessa Chapman and those obsessed with her life, her talent, and her legacy. Ever so slowly, little tidbits about Chapman’s art work are revealed, and there is also the discovery of a possible human bone in one of her sculptures. There are pieces of the collection that were left to the Fairburn Foundation upon Chapman’s death that appear to be missing. The Fairburn Foundation is a charitable trust that was set up by Douglas Lennox, an art dealer that had displayed Vanessa’s work. His son Sebastian is the director of the foundation. His university friend, James Becker, is a Chapman expert, and is its curator.
The mystery revolves around Vanessa’s confidant, Dr. Grace Haswell. She was bequeathed the house and property and is the executor of the will and of all the art work. She has been stalling the delivery of the pieces. She lives in what was Vanessa’s home, and is now hers, on a beautiful tidal island called Eris, in Scotland. It is accessible for only 6 hours a day. Otherwise, the road to it is submerged. What secrets does the water hide? What secrets are hidden on the property? Vanessa spent a great deal of time there with her closest friend and confidant, Grace Haswell. Their relationship was very complicated. It is Becker who has to investigate the missing pieces and deal with the sculpture that might contain a human bone. With the inquiry, he begins a journey that takes him to Eris and many unintended consequences.
As Grace takes Becker into her confidence, he is sympathetic toward her and her love for all things connected to Vanessa. As he learns more and more about her, though, he realizes that his intuition about her being more than an executor of the will, has been quite accurate. Grace seems to know a lot more than she lets on. She reveals secrets about the collection and Vanessa. but she has a loose relationship with the truth. He is unaware of the danger he is in, and naively rushes forward because of his own obsession with Vanessa Chapman which actually began because of his mother’s purchase of one of her paintings.
The novel is complete with mystery, deception, secrets, drugs, ambition, infidelity, domestic abuse, greed, arrogance, depravity, violence, lies, divorce, murder, and also, surprisingly, true love and romance. This book has it all. Why are people disappearing? What has happened to them? All of the characters are of diverse personalities and varied backgrounds, but most of them have a flaw, a dreadful secret or a strong passion that cannot be contained. People go missing and disappear.
Because there are so many characters, I will try to briefly summarize some of them for you. It will help to follow the story. Grace is very homely and lonely. She has been treated cruelly by others because of her appearance. Nick Riley was once a good friend of Grace and another woman, Audrey, but that ended disastrously. Julian Chapman drinks, gambles and has a weak moral compass. He is unfaithful with Celia Gray. He can be cruel, but he loves Vanessa and she finds it hard to give him up. Frances Levy is an artist who is Vanessa’s friend. James Becker is obsessed with learning everything there is to learn about Vanessa Chapman. He cannot believe that Helena Fitzgerald gave up Sebastian to become his wife. She is pregnant. Sebastian is rich, and although sometimes smug, he is kind to Becker in spite of their compromised history. Douglas and Emmeline are the parents of Sebastian. Emmeline despises James Becker because Sebastian and Helena had once been engaged. Marguerite, another person in the town, suffers from dementia. Her husband Stuart Cummins was abusive. This novel has many arms and legs and grows larger as it is explored, but in the end, all of the characters will be connected in some way, and although the reader may have some unanswered questions, they will have had a satisfying experience, especially if they listen to the audio interpretation of the book by Gemma Williams.… (more)