"Set among the (unspecified) menace of 1970s Belfast, this winner of the 2018 Man Booker prize is a visionary jamboree of inventiveness that resonates with the #MeToo movement."
The unnamed narrator of this remarkable novel is a vulnerable, bookish eighteen-year-old who lives in a close-knit community beset by sectarian violence. Harassed by an older man she calls Milkman, she’s compelled to keep her encounter with this sinister figure a deeply buried secret. She’s isolated, silenced, and must remain silent, and it’s this that cuttingly resonates with the #MeToo movement, and also with the situation of many teenage girls whose early experiences of womanhood all too often involve fear, shame and secrecy.
Many reviews of this novel speak of its “challenging” nature, its “difficult” experimentalism, but whether a reader finds it to be “difficult” very much depends as to how one engages with the narrator. It took a little while to fall in step with her rhythm, but I found her stream-of-consciousness voice compelling and richly rewarding. Sharp on the psychology of small communities and the repercussions of inaction, and quirkily comic to boot, this is an exhaustively exceptional novel.
'Blazing.'Daily Telegraph'Outstanding.' New Statesman'A triumph.' Guardian'Utterly compelling.' Irish Times'The best Booker winner in years.' MetroIn an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, 'Milkman'. In this community, where suggestions quickly become fact, where gossip and hearsay can lead to terrible consequences, what can she do to stop a rumour once it has started?
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
'Blazing.'Daily Telegraph'Outstanding.' New Statesman'A triumph.' Guardian'Utterly compelling.' Irish Times'The best Booker winner in years.' MetroIn an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, 'Milkman'. In this community, where suggestions quickly become fact, where gossip and hearsay can lead to terrible consequences, what can she do to stop a rumour once it has started?
Milkman features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Book Club Recommendations, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
Hardback, , Paperback, CD-Audio, Ebook. £7.99. Digital. Available Immediately. Country restrictions apply..
Milkman was written by Anna Burns and published by Faber & Faber
£7.99. Digital. Available Immediately. Country restrictions apply..
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