Wreaking
Author(s): James Scudamore
This is a brilliantly dark and unsettling novel from the author of the Booker longlisted Heliopolis and one of the UK's most talented young writers. Perilously ill, Jasper Scriven spends his days roaming the wards of a derelict psychiatric hospital on England's southeast coast. His daughter Cleo works in London as a news editor, making palatable stories of the world's events and trying to stay one step ahead of her demons. Meanwhile, she is watched by Roland, a hulking, silent figure who inhabits a network of railway arches, emerging at night to pound the streets and burgle homes to order. These three solitary characters are connected by an accident that took place at the hospital in the aftermath of its closure - an event that defies understanding even as it continues to define them. Their attempts to negotiate the past will bring them together again and force them to revisit their actions, however uncomfortable that may be. In this brilliantly imagined and disturbing novel, James Scudamore explores the fallibility of memory, the notion of madness and the way events resound in both people and places.
General Information
- :
- : Vintage
- : Vintage
- : 01 July 2014
- : United Kingdom
- : 01 August 2014
- : books
Other Specifications
- : James Scudamore
- : Paperback
- : 823.92
- : 400
More About The Product
A brilliantly dark and unsettling novel from the author of the Booker longlisted Heliopolis and one of the UK's most talented young writers
"Scudamore is a richly imaginative fabulist" -- Alan Warner Scotsman "A quietly remarkable novel that resonates with universality" Literary Review "A creepy chronicle of abuse, abandonment and unrequited love... So much here is brilliant" Metro "A gripping exploration of mental illness... A compelling update of a Gothic novel... The real pleasure of this book is Mr Scudamore's masterly and unflinching prose" The Economist "There can be no doubting the remarkable scope of this writer's imagination, nor the skill of his prose. He has a genius for atmosphere. Wreaking is...overflowing with images and ideas and influences" -- Cressida Connolly Spectator
James Scudamore is the author of two previous novels. His first, The Amnesia Clinic, won the 2007 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for four other prizes, including the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His second, Heliopolis, was longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. He has held two fellowships at the University of East Anglia, and is on the MFA faculty of City University Hong Kong. www.jamesscudamore.com
