Black Dirt
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Pan Macmillan
Published:5th Jan '12
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Frank lies in bed, his dying dreams haunted by memories of one long-ago summer, the sticky heat of night, and the stories his father told about Christ, the red-breasted robin, and kings Arthur and Alfred. But other images also rise to the surface, unbidden and unwanted, and Frank finds himself forced to recall his older sister, Iris, whose existence – and terrible crime – he has spent long years struggling to forget.
‘Spare and beautifully crafted’ Daily Telegraph
‘Each character digs deeper into the earth and each layer that’s peeled away reveals a darker, more sinister one beneath’ Independent on Sunday
‘Leyshon layers story upon story to create a peaty texture, using landscape and local lore in a way that recalls Graham Swift’s Waterland’ Observer
‘Haunting. The flood plain around Glastonbury is both the setting and the subject of this novel, layering myth and history to create a sense of a rich and mysterious past’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Compelling. Between Prank’s present and his memories are interspersed local legends that work their dark magic on Iris’s imagination to bring about the novel’s devastating climax’ Time Out
- Long-listed for Orange Prize for Fiction 2016 (UK)
ISBN: 9781447218951
Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 12mm
Weight: 318g
240 pages