The reputation of British novelist A. S. Byatt soared in this country after the publication of Possession. Winner of England's 1990 Booker Prize, Possession was the critical and commercial success that called national attention to a writer of extraordinary gifts. Yet it was clear even upon publication of her first book, The Shadow of the Sun, that Byatt possessed unusual perception and promise. Her debut novel, said the Times Literary Supplement of London in 1964, "suggests that before long Mrs. Byatt may achieve a considerable reputation."
The Shadow of the Sun is the story of sensitive seventeen-year old Anna Severell, who struggles to discover and develop her own personality in the shadow of her father, Henry Severell, a renowned British novelist. In the introduction to this edition A. S. Byatt looks back on the novel's genesis and on the problems she faced as a woman writing her first novel.