Seahorses - Softcover

Bidisha

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006550304 ISBN 13: 9780006550303

Publisher: Flamingo, 1998

Synopsis

Astoundingly accomplished urban fiction from one of the brightest young talents around.

Londoners Will (suave, predatory, loads of parties but no friends), Juliane (a reclusive, misanthropic composer) and Ian (an habitual skulker) are all in search of life, love and the pursuit of happiness.

But are the Groucho, Coast and the Ministry the places to find them?

Rich in bright imagery and sharp observation, Seahorses is the remarkably confident and mature debut of a young writer with her finger on the pulse of the coming generation.

About this title

Review:

‘Bidisha is without exaggeration one of this year’s most promising writers.’
Dominic Lutyens, The Times

‘Seahorses... is quite plainly the work of an extraordinary talent... hauntingly powerful... the writing is ambitiously detailed, almost obsessive and drenched in imagery... Seahorses would be an impressive debut for any novelist, let alone one so young.’
Thomas Blaikie, Spectator

‘A fine attention to the lives and style of the media classes against a bleak city backdrop makes for a remarkably mature debut... perhaps the most startling achievement of the novel is the richness of its observation of the city itself and the freshness of metaphor it brings to its depiction.’
Mary Scott, Independent

‘Happily, this precociously talented nipper sidesteps the drugs’n’raves clichés of most post-Trainspotting yoof fiction, to attempt something much more mature... a stunningly accomplished debut.’
Stephen Dalton, Vox

From the Back Cover:

Londoners Will (suave, predatory, loads of parties but no friends), Juliane (a reclusive, misanthropic composer) and Ian (an habitual skulker) are all in search of life, love and the pursuit of happiness. But are the Groucho, Coast and the Ministry the places to find them? And can the enigmatic attractive schoolgirl Pale help?

''Seahorses'...is quite plainly the work of an extraordinary talent. Against the background of crises-ridden London, where people's clothes are "the colour of burning kerosene" and the streets are blocked with "rubble heaps of brownish snow", the shadowy, brutalised characters undergo eerie metamorphoses into ever more grotesque versions of success or failure... hauntingly powerful... the writing is ambitiously detailed, almost obsessive and drenched in imagery... 'Seahorses' would be an impressive debut for any novelist, let alone one so young.'
THOMAS BLAIKIE, 'Spectator'

'A fine attention to the lives and style of the media classes against a bleak city backdrop makes for a remarkably mature debut...perhaps the most startling achievement of the novel is the richness of its observation of the city itself and the freshness of metaphor it brings to its depiction.'
MARY SCOTT, 'Independent'

'A 15-year-old schoolgirl finds herself embroiled in an improbable, desultory relationship with a jaded thirtysomething man or two... there are passages of brilliant writing – (Bidisha) can invent and command imagery with a skill that dazzles at times. Likewise, her descriptive style is both anarchic and ingenious.'
EDWARD DOCX, 'Sunday Express'

'Happily, this precociously talented nipper sidesteps the drugs n' raves clichés of most post-'Trainspotting' yoof fiction, to attempt something much more mature... a stunningly accomplished debut.'
STEPHEN DALTON, 'Vox'

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0006550304
• ISBN 13: 9780006550303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224