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Winner of the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Winner of the 2014 James Tait Black Prize Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize Shortlisted for the 2013 Goldsmiths Prize Shortlisted for the 2014 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction As late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders - two men and a dangerously magnetic woman - arrives on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk's village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel punishment meted out to the innocent, and allegations of witchcraft. But something even darker is at the heart of Walter's story, and he will be the only man left to tell it . . .
A National Book Critics Circle Awards Winner From the author of Quarantine comes Being Dead, Jim Crace's haunting novel about love, death, and the afterlife. Baritone Bay, mid-afternoon. A couple, naked, married almost thirty years, are lying murdered in the dunes. "Their bodies had expired, but anyone could tell--just look at them--that Joseph and Celice were still devoted. For while his hand was touching her, curved round her shin, the couple seemed to have achieved that peace the world denies, a period of grace, defying even murder. Anyone who found them there, so wickedly disfigured, would nevertheless be bound to see that something of their love had survived the death of cells. The corpses were surrendered to the weather and the earth, but they were still a man and wife, quietly resting; flesh on flesh; dead, but not departed yet."
From the Man Booker shortlisted author of Harvest. Alfred Busi, famed in his town for his music and songs, is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days in the large villa he has always called home. Then one night Busi is attacked by a creature he disturbs as it raids the contents of his larder. Busi is convinced that what assaulted him was no animal, but a child, ‘innocent and wild’, and his words fan the flames of old rumour – of an ancient race of people living in the bosk surrounding the town – and new controversy: the town’s paupers, the feral wastrels at its edges, must be dealt with. Once and for all. Lyrical and warm, intimate and epic, The Melody by Jim Crace tracks the few days that will see Busi and the town he loves altered irrevocably. This is a story about grief and ageing, about reputation and the loss of it, about love and music and the peculiar way myth seeps into real life. And it is a political novel too – a rallying cry to protect those we persecute. 'The Melody takes its place among his finest [novels] . . . an ecological fable for modern times' Guardian
Jim Crace's novel is the brilliantly imagined story of Christ's forty days in the wilderness, a tale of three men, two women, and a curious wanderer whose peculiar fate is transformed into legend. Dazzling, gritty, and utterly compelling, Quarantine is a work at once timeless and timely - a parable for the ages.
Jim Crace is one of the most imaginative of contemporary novelists. The author of nine novels, he has received great public and intellectual acclaim across the UK, Europe, Australia and the United States. He was awarded the National Book Critics’ Circle Fiction prize (USA) for Being Dead in 2000. Philip Tew's study is the first extended critical examination of Crace's oeuvre and is based on extensive interviews with the novelist, including discussions of his work from his first worldwide bestseller Continent (1986) up to The Pesthouse (2007). Designed especially both for undergraduates of contemporary fiction, and for those who simply enjoy reading the author, Jim Crace is an excellent addition to the Contemporary British Novelists series. Tew's treatment of themes, contexts and narrative strategies illuminates the literary and critical contexts within which Crace operates, situating him as one of the most adventurous and challenging of Britain’s twenty-first century authors.
This is a unique essay collection on Jim Crace, locating his writing within contemporary philosophical, cultural and political debates. This timely first critical collection of essays on Crace’s work provides a retrospective on his work to date, locating his work within a number of contemporary interdisciplinary critical and cultural perspectives and concerns, including post-humanism, post-millennial pastoralism, post-post feminism and gender, intersections between science and literary theory, environmental politics, the symbiotics of authorial and critical archival work, and the context of the burgeoning world of literary prizes. It includes additional contextual material in the form of an interview with Jim Crace and the re-publication of a seminal critical essay on “Craceland” by Adam Begley. As such this critical essay collection will be essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary fiction, and Crace’s unique writing.
One night when there are guests and all the wine has gone, they put the can into the candlelight amongst the debris of their meal and play the guessing game. An aphrodisiac. perhaps; “Let’s try . . .” ’ Bursting with delightfully subversive ingredients and mischievous behaviour, The Devil’s Larder is a sensuous portrait—in sixty-four parts—of a community in which meals cater not for taste buds but to satisfy the imagination This is a book about our loves. and hates, our appetites and desires, rendered with startling beauty and devilish invention.
During the years of America’s ascendancy, the great ships brought waves of immigrants to the promised land. In sight of the Statute of Liberty, the huddled masses disembarked in search of the American dream. In the imagined future, the great ships play a different role. In a work of outstanding originality, Jim Crace’s The Pesthouse envisions a future America in ruins and a reversal of history: desperate Americans seeking passage to the promised land of Europe. Crace’s future United States is a lawless wasteland. The economy collapses, industry ceases, and the remaining populace returns to subsistence farming. The only hope rests with reaching the east coast and obtaining passage by sh...
‘Hard and actual in observation, clearly and richly imagined, remarkably original’ Guardian A novel in seven stories, Continent is an exploration of the cultures, communities and natural life of an entirely imaginary realm. Built on rich seams of myth and metaphor, this new, seventh continent is strange, atmospheric and yet not wholly a mirage, for its inhabitants are disarmingly familiar, known to us through their loves, their hopes and their struggles to make sense of life. On its first publication over twenty years ago, this spellbinding book marked the arrival of one of the most inventive minds at work in modern fiction. ‘Fuses folklore and political parable, moral fable and myth, into something rather original and also very modern’ The Times ‘Makes us see our own world more clearly . . . brilliant, provocative and delightful’ New York Times
Leonard Lessing once cast a spell on stage, hypnotizing crowds with his improvised jazz, easy in his music, at home in the moment. Now, home is somewhere he never leaves. His sax is silent, his marriage faltering, his stepdaughter vanished, and his life shrinking – until one afternoon the TV brings news he can’t ignore. A figure from his firebrand past has arrived in town, with hair-raising results. Can Leonard face the limelight one last time? ‘Rich, cleverly constructed . . . a funny, heartwarming and hugely enjoyable read’ Herald ‘All That Follows sends an artist in the doldrums on a quest to recover his valour. Crace writes gloriously’ Independent ‘Alive and kicking . . . Crace writes with real feel and imagination about music’ Sunday Times ‘Blending comedy with a touch of pathos, this is an unexpectedly joyful novel’ Daily Mail