Eating Mammals - Softcover

Barlow, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007166494 ISBN 13: 9780007166497

Publisher: HarperPerennial, 2005

Synopsis

Three wonderfully original, linked novellas based on bizarre true stories. A new master of the eccentric and the entertaining, John Barlow has been compared to Michel Faber and T. C. Boyle. A winged cat wreaks havoc in a Yorkshire workhouse. An autumnal romance between two pork pie makers is celebrated with a donkey wedding. The strange career of Michael 'Cast Iron' Mulligan is revealed by his unlucky apprentice Captain Gusto -- both men who eat -- and eat anything -- for a living. These are the stories that mark the debut of one of fiction's most original and assured new voices. And, remarkably, they all are based on fact. Gypsies, Victorian businessmen, servants, masters and unwise children come together in three gothic and moving novellas of magic and deception. Largely set in the nineteenth century, they combine the satisfactions of the finest novels with a playfulness that does not forfeit humanity. With the comic sensibility of Dickens and a taste for the macabre worthy of Irvine Welsh, John Barlow is a storyteller with a unique imagination who will continue to amaze and entertain us for many years to come.

About this title

Review:

'Eating Mammals will make you laugh, groan, retch, and ultimately be uplifted ... The world is a stranger and therefore better place now that Eating Mammals is in it.' Niall Griffiths'Each of the novellas is fascinated by the rich taste of story and by the work that story does in staving off despair, starvation and ignominy.' Times Literary Supplement

About the Author:

John Barlow teaches at the University of York but still prefers to live in Hull. He hopes soon to divide his time between Spain and the North. This is his first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperPerennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007166494
• ISBN 13: 9780007166497
• Binding: Paperback