The Dig - Hardcover

Jones, Cynan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847088783 ISBN 13: 9781847088789

Publisher: Granta Books, 2014

Synopsis

This is a searing short novel, built of the interlocking fates of a badger-baiter and a disconsolate farmer, unfolding in a stark rural setting where man, animal, land and weather are at loggerheads. Their two paths converge with tragic inevitability. Jones writes of the physiology of grief and the isolation of loss with brilliance, and about the simple rawness of animal existence with a naturalist's unblinking eye. His is a pared-down prose of resonant simplicity and occasional lushness. His writing about ducks and dogs and cows is axe-sharp. There is not a whiff of the bucolic pastoral or the romanticized sod here. This is a real rural ride. It is short, but crackles with latent compressed energy that makes it swell to fill more space than at first glance it occupies.

About this title

Review

'The plot is winningly sparse. The first twenty pages possess a sharp exactitude, like a taut line of barbed wire. The detail of the prose is remarkable.' --Literary Review

'By turns chilling and haunting, The Dig is a visceral indictment of the continuities between the use and abuse of animals, and a meditation on the casual violence of ordinary men.' --Patrick Flanery, author of Absolution

'A brilliant novel - tense, tough and haunting.' --Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine

'The Dig is a muscular, sinewy book. It reads like Cormac McCarthy meeting Ted Hughes down a dark country lane. Altogether The Dig is nasty, brutish and short, and thoroughly memorable' --John Self, Asylum

'The Dig is a marvellous novel... It is raw, brutal stuff, and Jones tells it with freshly scoured clarity. There are echoes of Ted Hughes, Cormac McCarthy and Ernest Hemingway. It can be read like poetry, letting the words resonate in the skull until the tantalising patterns of its deeper meaning emerge' --The Times

'Dramatic, beautifully drawn and powerfully immediate... Jones has a wonderful eye and his prose can feel as ruminative as a sheep's slow deliberate chewing' --The Sunday Times

'The Dig is short, dark, intense... It's raw, brutal stuff' --'Our Critics' Choice', The Times

'Dark, tense and vital... Jones's spare prose is reminiscent of early Ian McEwan, although several similes are more adventurous... The Dig is brilliantly alive; a profound, powerful and utterly absorbing portrayal of a subterranean rural world' --Guardian

'A powerful novel about isolation and loss, written in wonderful pared-down prose, from a former Betty Trask award-winner' --'Must Reads', Observer

'The Dig explores its central themes - loss, isolation, nature - through dry, punchy storytelling. Each sentence has been neatly sculpted to develop a rich poetry from the stuff of rural life' --New Statesman

'There's something of John Steinbeck, Cormac McCarthy and the Old Testament to this short, sharp, brutal and bewitching tale... Beauty and barbarity, tenderness and heartlessness are mixed in prose that reads like stark poetry. There's almost too much truth in this unforgettable novel. But great beauty too' --Monocle

'A short novel that packs the compact force of a lightweight boxer... Jones has hewn an earthy, flinty language. We can only wonder at what this singular voice might create next' --Metro

'There's something of John Steinbeck, Cormac McCarthy and the Old Testament to this short, sharp, brutal and bewitching tale... Beauty and barbarity, tenderness and heartlessness are mixed in prose that reads like stark poetry. There's almost too much truth in this unforgettable novel. But great beauty too' --Monocle

'It's dark, disturbing and lyrical' --'Telling everyone to read...', Herald Magazine

'There's something of John Steinbeck, Cormac McCarthy and the Old Testament to this short, sharp, brutal and bewitching tale... Beauty and barbarity, tenderness and heartlessness are mixed in prose that reads like stark poetry. There's almost too much truth in this unforgettable novel. But great beauty too' --Monocle

'The Dig is an important and superbly written book with the ability to deeply move the reader' --Tivy-Side Advertiser

'Tenderness and brutality are folded together in this chiselled gem of a novel. Jones has a poet's eye for detail' --Intelligent Life

'Brief yet powerful... The Dig is rich and deeply felt, and combines a visceral emotional punch with a beautifully detailed sense of place' --New Welsh Review

'Tenderness and brutality are folded together in this chiselled gem of a novel. Jones has a poet's eye for detail' --Intelligent Life

'A small, beautifully-formed tale of loss set against the brutality of badger baiting... Jones proves that the short novel can be as epic, and stylistically demanding as a long one. Set amid hostile nature, it reflects on loss, mourning and how the natural cycle of death and decay impacts on the soul. Not bad at 176 pages' --Arifa Akbar on the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize finalists, Independent

'Tenderness and brutality are folded together in this chiselled gem of a novel. Jones has a poet's eye for detail' --Intelligent Life

About the Author

CYNAN JONES was born near Aberaeron, Wales in 1975. His previous novels are The Long Dry (winner of a Betty Trask Award in 2007), Everything I Found on the Beach, and the retelling of a Welsh myth Bird, Blood, Snow. In 2013, the chapter 'The Dig' from this novel was shortlisted for the Sunday Times/EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1847088783
• ISBN 13: 9781847088789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176