Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education is a 1989 semi-autobiographical novel by Sybille Bedford. It shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year.[1] In many ways a follow-up to her earlier work, A Legacy, it is the story of a girl called Billi as she grows up and experiences sexual, intellectual and emotional awakenings. When Billi's father dies, she leaves behind her childhood in Germany for life with her morphine-addicted mother on the French Riviera.
The novel met with great acclaim when it was published,[2] and Victoria Glendinning and Roger Kimball both cite it as evidence of Bedford's underrated brilliance.[3] [4] It was republished by Eland in 2005, and released in a new edition by Eland in 2012.[5]