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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.”
WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD 'The Loney is not just good, it's great. It's an amazing piece of fiction' Stephen King Two brothers. One mute, the other his lifelong protector. Year after year, their family visits the same sacred shrine on a desolate strip of coastline known as the Loney, in desperate hope of a cure. In the long hours of waiting, the boys are left alone. And they cannot resist the causeway revealed with every turn of the treacherous tide, the old house they glimpse at its end ...Many years on, Hanny is a grown man no longer in need of his brother's care. But then the child's body is found. And the Loney always gives up its secrets, in the end. 'This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill' Observer 'A masterful excursion into terror' The Sunday Times
In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion some of our Reader Review Panel were also lucky enough to read and review this title. You can click here to read the full reviews.
'An amazing piece of fiction' Stephen King
'Here is the masterpiece by which Hurley must enter the Guild of the Gothic: it pleases me to think of his name written on some parchment scroll, alongside those of Walpole, Du Maurier, Maturin and Jackson' Guardian
'A masterful excursion into terror' Sunday Times
'An extraordinarily haunted and haunting novel' Daily Telegraph
'This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill' Observer
'Written with the skill of a poet' The Times, Books of the Year
'An eerie, disturbing read that doesn't let up until its surprise ending' Daily Mail
'An unforgettable addition to the ranks of the best British horror' Metro
'A haunting and ambiguous novel that will keep you up at night' Daily Express
'A tale of suspense that sucks you in and pulls you under. As yarns go, it rips' New Statesman
'A masterclass in spinning out tension' Financial Times
ISBN: 9781473619852
Publication date: 07/04/2016
Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd an imprint of John Murray General Publishing Division
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781473619821
Publication date: 27/08/2015
Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd an imprint of John Murray General Publishing Division
Format: Hardback
| 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 |
| Genres: | Reader Reviewed Books, Debuts of the Month, eBook Favourites, Horror, Literary Fiction, Reading Groups, |
| Categories: | Horror & ghost stories, |
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
