The Dumb House (Vintage Classics) - Softcover

Burnside, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784870110 ISBN 13: 9781784870119

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 2015

Synopsis

As a child, Luke’s mother often tells him the story of the Dumb House, an experiment on newborn babies raised in silence, designed to test the innateness of language. As Luke grows up, his interest in language and the delicate balance of life and death leads to amateur dissections of small animals – tiny hearts revealed still pumping, as life trickles away. But as an adult, following the death of his mother, Luke’s obsession deepens, resulting in a haunting and bizarre experiment on Luke’s own children.

About this title

Review:

"Compelling reading" (Scotsman)

"A wonderfully disturbing book - chillingly focused and lyrically amoral with moments of remarkable stillness and beauty. A poetic novel in the best and most troubling sense" (A. L. Kennedy)

"Burnside's prose is exquisite and he dissects his themes with delicacy to produce a novel resonant with poetic menace" (Sunday Times)

"An exceptionally sinister book... It is the story of Luke, whose experiments into the nature of human language are recounted with all the beguiling reasonableness of the highly intelligent madman... The horror is tempered and fine-tuned by the exceptional beauty of Burnside's writing... In Luke, Burnside has produced one of the most chilling voices in recent fiction" (Times Literary Supplement)

"My favourite book of the year" (Jen Campbell’s vlog)

Book Description:

John Burnside's first novel, his profoundly disturbing and beautifully written story of scientific curiosity gone awry

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1784870110
• ISBN 13: 9781784870119
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224