Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2015.
Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Fiction and Breakthrough Author Awards 2016.
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.”
September 2015 Debut of the Month.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
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'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 ...
The Loney features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Books with reviews by our Reader Review Panel, eBooks of the Month, Book Club Recommendations, Debut Books of the Month, Horror and Supernatural Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
The Loney is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Loney was written by Andrew Michael Hurley and published by John Murray Publishers Ltd an imprint of John Murray General Publishing Division
