Right from the first page of this book, I was hooked, and though this isn’t a small book, I finished it in a few days.
I needed to know if Demon would be ok in the end (despite having recently re-read David Copperfield, on which the story is based), but more than this, Kingsolver’s writing is a joy to spend time in, utterly immersive and alive, with great pacing and depth. She’s made us a cast of complex characters who do wonderful and terrible things, and are always deeply human.
And the clincher that this really is a great book? My husband, who usually reads about one novel every 18 months, devoured it in one week; now that’s an accolade!
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
Wow, what a wild ride! I just loved the sheer energy of Fagan’s book, its inventiveness, and its rage.
This book isn’t my usual kind of book. I’m not big into ghosts and spirits, but I couldn’t resist the joyous opening with the Devil’s daughter sailing the coffin her father made her across the sea to find a new life. And what life and death this book is filled with. I relished the huge cast of characters across decades, all connected by one house in Edinburgh, and squirmed and laughed in equal measure as their stories twisted and turned almost too fast to keep up with.
This book is huge fun (though maybe not one for those of sensitive dispositions), and I’m looking out for more of Fagan’s work.
Featured in Damian Barr''s picks for 2021 Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2021 Chosen as one of the Best Books of 2021 in the Telegraph
''If this addictive slice of Edinburgh Gothic isn''t on all prize lists, there is no justice.'' iNews
''Over time, 10 Luckenbooth Close sinks from grand residence to condemned squat with secrets seething in its walls ... Luckenbooth is a place of compacted time, where the past manifests as unquiet ghosts and the future bleeds into the present ... There''s a force in Luckenbooth''s bizarre assemblage.'' The Times
I was completely immersed in this book, looking forward to the time each evening when I could slip back into it. It’s like the rockpools it describes, irresistibly and surprisingly rich. When I see a pool by the sea, I have to dip a toe or a bucket in to see what’s there, and that’s what reading this feels like. It’s a slow read, and nothing much happens,
Nicolson creates three artificial pools by the sea and watches what arrives. That’s it, but that simplicity is where I found the joy. I slowed right down and, alongside Nicolson, began to consider what we mean by life and by being alive as I watched strange creatures reveal themselves.
It’s one of the best books about nature and life that I’ve read; deliciously well-written, absorbing, and revelatory.
'A remarkable and powerful book, the rarest of things ... Nicolson is unique as a writer ... I loved it' EDMUND DE WAAL
Few places are as familiar as the shore - and few as full of mystery and surprise.
How do sandhoppers inherit an inbuilt compass from their parents? How do crabs understand the tides? How can the death of one winkle guarantee the lives of its companions? What does a prawn know?
In The Sea is Not Made of Water, Adam Nicolson explores the natural wonders of the intertidal and our long…
It’s the end of a long, wet winter, and Starling and her mother, Mar, are stuck in their van in the middle of an English wood, hiding from the bailiffs. Starling was born in the van and has lived in it ever since, nineteen years.
But they’re trapped, they can’t move without help, and they’re out of fuel and food, out of money, and out of friends; Mar has cut them off from everyone they once knew and trusted. And while Starling’s out gathering food, Mar walks out, leaving her totally alone.
Starling is tough and can survive in the wild, but total isolation is something even she isn’t prepared for: she has to find her own way of living from now on.
