Born Free
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Canongate Books
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Punchy, acerbic, sharp-witted and above-all, acutely observed, Born Free tells the story of an ordinary family who are all trying to escape from something - and each other.
The interactions between Jake, Joni, Angie and Vic reveal a hellish cocktail of asdolescent and mid-life crises; the savagery of sibling rivalry; the waking nightmare of a marriage gone cold - and, naturally, the unbridgeable, infernal chasm between the generations.
It's a story of everyday life.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WHITBREAD FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2000 BOOK OF THE YEAR - THE FACE '99 NOMINATED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE
The writing is of a high quality and puts across a powerful sense of claustrophobia and quiet desperation. * * The Observer * *
It's desperately readable, blackly comic and painful, a delight born of dysfunction. * * The Times * *
Born Free confirms Laura Hird as one of Scotland's most talented writers. This bleak tale of urban dismay, set in the badlands of Edinburgh, is a work of considerable force and maturity - Hird organises her material with confidence and style - The novel's final 50 pages are a memorable descent into the dark mires of the human spirit, yet the book ends with a spark of optimism. * * Daily Telegraph * *
Born Free exhibits a maturity that suggests Hird has emerged from the coat-tails of her peers and has ceased to play the literary wee sister - she manages to carry things off with aplomb - Hird's portrayal of a woman in alcoholic free-fall is uncomfortably accurate - shifts with ease from the screamingly funny to the gut-wrenching - thought provoking and entertaining. * * The Scotsman * *
- Short-listed for Whitbread Book Awards: First Novel Category 2000
ISBN: 9781841950488
Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 17mm
Weight: 240g
288 pages
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