LoveReading Expert Review of Himself
June 2017 Debut of the Month.
Longlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2017.
Dublin-wise, orphaned young man goes in search of his birth mother. He has a photograph with a note on the back and the name of a village. This is very Irish and completely charming. The village characters are beautifully drawn. Our young protagonist has a gift; he can see (and converse with) the dead. This is neither ghost story nor detective novel although both elements are present, more it is a human story of an odd community of slightly over-the-top country people who might all have something to hide. Certainly finding out what happened to his young, teenage mother proves to be tricky with most folk seeming to conceal a secret. The dead are not sinister, they are just there, being themselves. I loved the pictures the author paints, the dog lying by its master’s feet, the man trying to hang up his hat. Lovely images in a lovely debut. Highly recommended. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
Shortlisted for The Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2017.
Himself Synopsis
A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2016 Shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2017 Longlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2017 1950. A teenage girl is brutally murdered in a forest. But, somehow, her baby survives. 1976. A mysterious and charming young man returns to the remote coastal village of Mulderrig, seeking answers about the mother who, it was said, had abandoned him on the steps of a Dublin orphanage. With the help of its oldest and most eccentric inhabitant, he will force the village to give up its ghosts. Nothing, not even the dead, can stay buried forever.
About This Edition
| ISBN: | 9781786899835 |
| Publication date: | 2nd January 2020 |
| Author: | Jess Kidd |
| Publisher: | Canongate Books Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 368 pages |
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
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About Jess Kidd
Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from County Mayo. Her first novel, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016 and she was the winner of the Costa Short Story Award in the same year. In 2017, Himself was shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and longlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Her second novel, The Hoarder, was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in association with Listowel Writers' Week'. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club picks. @JessKiddHerself | jesskidd.com
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