Nicola Barker
Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, an epic novel of startling originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of Britain’s most exciting literary talents.
If history is a sick joke which keeps on repeating, then who keeps on telling it? Could it be John Scogin, Edward IV’s jester, whose favourite skit was to burn people alive? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, physician to Henry VIII, who wrote John Scogin’s biography? Or could it be a Kurd called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of salad? Or a beautiful bulimic with brittle bones? Or a man who guards Beckley Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier?
Darkmans is a very modern book, set in ridiculously modern Ashford, about two old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. And the main character? The past, creeping up on the present and whispering something quite dark into its ear.
Darkmans is the third of Nicola Barker’s visionary Thames Gateway novels. Following Wide Open (winner Dublin IMPAC award 2000) and Behindlings it confirms one of Britain’s most original literary talents.
Reviews of Darkmans
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- ‘This is the work of a very fine storyteller indeed’ The Times
- ‘The writing is often hilarious. Barker carves up the suburban dinner party savagely, and anatomises the dodgiest builder on Earth…Nicola Barker’s writing is hugely attractive, because it conjures images and ideas from a tremendous wealth of inspiration. It is the product of a powerful, sprawling imagination’ Daily Telegraph
- ‘A loud shout of glorious, untidy, angry, joyous life. Barker is a great, restless novelist, and “Darkmans” is a great, restless novel. At the end of 838 blinding, high-octane pages, I was bereft that there weren’t 838 more’ Guardian
- ‘When a new novel by Nicola Barker arrives, there is a host of reasons to break into a smile. Chief among them is that she is one of the most exhilarating, audacious and, for want of a better word, ballsy writers of her generation. And, in a publishing terrain that often inhibits ambition and promotes homogeneity, there is nobody writing quite like her’ Observer
- ‘A visionary epic’ Sam Leith, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’
More from Nicola Barker
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Burley Cross Postbox Theft
Other -
Burley Cross Postbox Theft
Other -
In the Approaches
Paperback -
In the Approaches
Paperback -
Burley Cross Postbox Theft
Hardback -
Darkmans
Paperback -
Darkmans
Hardback -
Clear: A Transparent Novel
Hardback -
In the Approaches
Other -
In the Approaches
Hardback -
In the Approaches
Other -
The Yips
Other -
The Yips
Paperback -
The Yips
Hardback -
Wide Open
Other -
Five Miles from Outer Hope
Other -
Heading Inland
Other -
Clear
Paperback -
Five Miles from Outer Hope
Paperback -
Wide Open
Paperback -
Heading Inland
Paperback -
Behindlings
Paperback -
Burley Cross Postbox Theft
Paperback -
Burley Cross Postbox Theft
Other -
Darkmans
Ebook -
Clear: A Transparent Novel
Other -
Reversed Forecast / Small Holdings
Other -
The Three Button Trick: Selected stories
Other -
Love Your Enemies
Paperback -
Love Your Enemies
Other -
Reversed Forecast
Paperback -
Reversed Forecast
Other -
Small Holdings
Paperback -
Burley Cross Postbox Theft
Other -
Small Holdings
Other