LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
One of our Books of the Year 2016.
Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Fiction and Breakthrough Author Awards 2016.
May 2016 Debut of the Month.
Winner of Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards 2016.
Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2015.
Perhaps it's the sheets of rain which fall continuously on The Loney, that " wild and useless length of English coastline", a "strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest", but I've not read so chilling a horror novel for years. The setting for an Easter-time Catholic pilgrimage for Andrew Michael Hurley's teenage narrator, his mentally handicapped brother and a motley collection of parishioners, the dread builds slowly but inexorably, as strange movements from creepy locals start to intrude on the religious retreat, and it becomes clear that while some might be looking "for God in the emerging springtime", others are on the trail of something entirely different. A truly eerie, captivating read, as mysterious and disturbing as its foggy, wet, bleak location. Masterfully pulled off. ~ Alison Flood
One of our Books of the Year 2015.
"The Loney is not just good. It's great... an amazing piece of fiction." Stephen King
Costa Judges' comment: “We all agreed this book is as close to the perfect first novel as you can get.”
Alison Flood
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About
The Loney Synopsis
'Modern classics in this genre are rare, and instant ones even rarer; The Loney, however, looks as though it may be both' Sunday Telegraph If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney - that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest. It was impossible to truly know the place. It changed with each influx and retreat, and the neap tides would reveal the skeletons of those who thought they could escape its insidious currents. No one ever went near the water. No one apart from us, that is. I suppose I always knew that what happened there wouldn't stay hidden for ever, no matter how much I wanted it to. No matter how hard I tried to forget ...
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781473619852 |
| Publication date: |
7th April 2016 |
| Author: |
Andrew Michael Hurley |
| Publisher: |
John Murray Publishers Ltd an imprint of John Murray General Publishing Division |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
368 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Andrew Michael Hurley Press Reviews
'The Loney is not just good, it's great. It's an amazing piece of fiction' Stephen King
'Modern classics in this genre are rare, and instant ones even rarer; The Loney, however, looks as though it may be both' Sunday Telegraph
'A thrilling first novel' Publishers Weekly
'The Loney is a stunning novel - about faith, the uncanny, strange rituals, and the oddity of human experience. Beautifully written, it's immensely entertaining, but also deep and wide. A moving evocation of desolate wilderness and a marvel of complex characterization, The Loney is one of my favorite reads of the past couple of years' Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times-bestselling author of the Southern Reach trilogy
'A modern classic: superbly eerie, beautifully human and immensely readable' Adam Roberts
'I can't remember a more confident debut: a mingling of horror, domestic strife and metaphysical ambiguities set against an arrestingly vivid landscape. Brilliant' Adam Thorpe
'The Loney transcends its generic roots by virtue of its depth and subtlety, imbuing horror with an intimacy, flavour and scent, meanwhile suggesting that horror's true face is meaningless, indifferent - and brilliantly blank' Grace McCleen
Author
About Andrew Michael Hurley
Andrew Michael Hurley has lived in Manchester and London, and is now based in Lancashire, where he teaches English Literature and Creative Writing. He has had two collections of short stories published by Lime Tree Press. The Loney is his first novel - it was first published in October 2014 by Tartarus Press, a tiny independent publisher based in Yorkshire, as a 300-copy limited-edition.
Author photo © Johnny Bean
More About Andrew Michael Hurley
