All the Birds, Singing - Softcover

Wyld, Evie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099572370 ISBN 13: 9780099572374

Publisher: Vintage, 2014

Synopsis

Jake Whyte is the sole resident of an old farmhouse on an unnamed British island, a place of ceaseless rains and battering winds. It’s just her, her untamed companion, Dog, and a flock of sheep. Which is how she wanted it to be. But something is coming for the sheep – every few nights it picks one off, leaves it in rags.

It could be anything. There are foxes in the woods, a strange boy and a strange man, rumours of an obscure, formidable beast. And there is Jake’s unknown past, perhaps breaking into the present, a story hidden thousands of miles away and years ago, in a landscape of different colour and sound, a story held in the scars that stripe her back.

Winner of the Miles Franklin Award
Winner of the Encore Award
Winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award
Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize
Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction

About this title

Review:

"Unsettling, dark and extraordinarily fresh. It feels eccentrically, wonderfully British... An inimitable, original new voice. Can’t wait to read more." (Viv Groskop The Times)

"Wyld is a writer who reconfigures the conventions of storytelling with a sure-footedness and ambition which belie her age... What makes the book so outstanding is the beauty and simplicity of the writing." (Cressida Connolly Spectator)

"One feels the influence of an early Ian McEwan or Iain Banks... But All the Birds, Singing, is also powerfully original, strongest in its handling of the human and animal worlds, and the thin line between the two." (Sophie Ratcliffe Times Literary Supplement)

"All The Birds, Singing is extraordinarily accomplished, one of those books that tears around in your cerebellum like a dark firework, and which, upon finishing, you immediately want to pick up again" (Melissa Harrison Financial Times)

"The closest cousin to All the Birds, Singing is Iain Banks' masterly first novel, The Wasp Factory... Evie Wyld's two books are quite as good as Ian McEwan's early fiction. Expect to hear her name often from now on." (Spectator)

"Her writing is precise, intense, haunting and poetic... A nuanced exploration of human suffering and resilience. Wyld’s writing seems to come from somewhere deep; somewhere a little big unnerving and odd. For once, the hype matches the talent." (Lucy Atkins Sunday Times)

"Evie Wyld’s All the Birds, Singing is an astonishing novel ... The story is compelling, the structure ambitious and the imagery vivid. This is one talented young writer." (Meaghan Delahunt Scotsman)

"Oozes, drips and throbs with menace... A thoughtful and intense account of a young woman seemingly determined to disappear from the world’s radar... All the Birds, Singing should enhance [Wyld's] reputation as one of our most gifted novelists." (Tim Lewis Observer)

"A hair-prickling thriller... It's the quality of [Wyld's] prose that really blows your mind." (Claire Allfree Metro)

"Unsettling, beautiful, horrifying and moving in equal parts, I haven't read anything quite like All the Birds, Singing for a long time... An extraordinary book." (Victoria MacCallum Stylist)

Book Description:

The highly acclaimed second novel from the award-winning novelist Evie Wyld, named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2013.

Winner of the Miles Franklin Award
Winner of the Encore Award
Winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award
Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize
Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0099572370
• ISBN 13: 9780099572374
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240