Runt - Softcover
On leaving school a sixteen-year-old boy goes to live with his uncle on a remote Welsh hill-farm. His aunt has recently committed suicide after losing her livestock in the foot-and-mouth epidemic and his uncle has turned, once again, to the bottle. The boy is an innocent, a spiritual savant; his uncle sees him as a shaman. An unwitting repository of folk memory, he is a boy from the margins: barely educated but possessed of extraordinary insights; barely literate but able to speak a language of his own - a poetry laden with Pagan and Christian myth. He is unaware that he is gifted, unaware of what he knows in general - which is probably for the best since the enormity of his knowledge, were it to be understood, would crush him. During one of his ecstatic trances the boy learns that he has an appointed role in the world, which he must discover for himself. During an episode of brutal and climactic violence, he does exactly that.
Told through the boy's internal monologue of beauty and damage, Runt is a powerful, disturbing and moving novel that reinvigorates the language of fiction and illuminates domestic tragedy with a penetrating epic light.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
'this is bleak and violent...peppered with absurdly funny moments' -- Independent on Sunday
`the writing leaps off the page...original and striking' -- Daily Telegraph
'Evolutionary psychology meets mythology in this short, strange,
savage novel...Niall Griffiths Prose enchants you'
-- Guardian
'Griffiths doesn't shy away from..."blood, puke and thunder"' -- The Big Issue Cymru
'Griffiths is unrivalled as the literary voice of contemporary
Wales' -- Metro
'Runt deserves the hackneyed description 'tour de force'
-- Scotsman
'You would have to go back to Thomas Hardy to find a British
writer who evokes a landscape so completely.' -- Time Out
'that sections of this haunting novel also read like a fever dream
of the rural Welsh poet RS Thomas only adds to a strangeness readers will
find either mesmerising or distancing' -- The Sunday Times
`Compelling and climactic'
-- The Independent
`visionary simplicity and mythic sense of place' -- TLS, rev'd by Caroline McGinn
Book Description:
`the writing leaps off the page...original and striking' -- Daily Telegraph
'Evolutionary psychology meets mythology in this short, strange,
savage novel...Niall Griffiths Prose enchants you'
-- Guardian
'Griffiths doesn't shy away from..."blood, puke and thunder"' -- The Big Issue Cymru
'Griffiths is unrivalled as the literary voice of contemporary
Wales' -- Metro
'Runt deserves the hackneyed description 'tour de force'
-- Scotsman
'You would have to go back to Thomas Hardy to find a British
writer who evokes a landscape so completely.' -- Time Out
'that sections of this haunting novel also read like a fever dream
of the rural Welsh poet RS Thomas only adds to a strangeness readers will
find either mesmerising or distancing' -- The Sunday Times
`Compelling and climactic'
-- The Independent
`visionary simplicity and mythic sense of place' -- TLS, rev'd by Caroline McGinn
'Niall Griffiths is an actual literary star. He tackles grand themes in exceedingly low milieux, a dichotomy reflected in the formal daring of his writing, which mixes demonic demotic with angelic high style.' Daily Telegraph
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherJonathan Cape
- Publication date2006
- ISBN 10 0224071238
- ISBN 13 9780224071239
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages160
- Rating
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Runt
Published by
Jonathan Cape
(2007)
ISBN 10: 0224071238
ISBN 13: 9780224071239
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Runt This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780224071239
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780224071239
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Runt
Published by
Jonathan Cape
(2006)
ISBN 10: 0224071238
ISBN 13: 9780224071239
Used
Paperback
Quantity: 3
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. New and unread however some shelf wear to edges of cover and corners. Slight ubumps to edges of cover. Shipped from the UK within 2 business days of order being placed. Seller Inventory # mon0000110614
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