Book description
Shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, an epic novel of startling
originality which confirms Nicola Barker as one of Britain's most
exciting literary talents.
If history is a sick joke which keeps on repeating, then who keeps on
telling it? Could it be John Scogin, Edward IV's jester, whose favourite
skit was to burn people alive? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, physician
to Henry VIII, who wrote John Scogin's biography? Or could it be a Kurd
called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of salad?
Or a beautiful bulimic with brittle bones? Or a man who guards Beckley
Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier?
Darkmans is a very modern book, set in ridiculously modern Ashford,
about two old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. And the main
character? The past, creeping up on the present and whispering something
quite dark into its ear.
Darkmans is the third of Nicola Barker's visionary Thames Gateway
novels. Following Wide Open (winner Dublin IMPAC award 2000) and
Behindlings it confirms one of Britain's most original literary talents.
'This is the work of a very fine storyteller indeed.' The Times
'The writing is often hilarious. Barker carves up the suburban dinner
party savagely, and anatomises the dodgiest builder on Earth…Nicola
Barker's writing is hugely attractive, because it conjures images and
ideas from a tremendous wealth of inspiration. It is the product of a
powerful, sprawling imagination.' Daily Telegraph
'a loud shout of glorious, untidy, angry, joyous life. Barker is a
great, restless novelist, and “Darkmans” is a great, restless novel. At
the end of 838 blinding, high-octane pages, I was bereft that there
weren't 838 more.' Guardian
'When a new novel by Nicola Barker arrives, there is a host of reasons
to break into a smile. Chief among them is that she is one of the most
exhilarating, audacious and, for want of a better word, ballsy writers
of her generation. And, in a publishing terrain that often inhibits
ambition and promotes homogeneity, there is nobody writing quite like
her.' Observer
'A visionary epic.' Sam Leith, in the Spectator 'Books of the Year'
'Darkmans is all about the ebullience of language, the erruption of the
past into the present, the seriousness and darkness of jokes. It defies
moderation because it celebrates misrule. Highly original and
interesting, and doing it with conviction and sharp humour. I know I
whipped through its more than 800 pages with attention unbroken. And I
know that the very night I finished it, it showed up in my dreams.
Seriously.' Literary Review Nicola Barker's nine novels include
Darkmans (shortlisted for the 2007 Booker and Ondaatje prizes, and
winner of the Hawthornden), Wide Open (winner of the 2000 IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award) and Clear (longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004). She
has also written three collections of short stories, and her work has
been translated into more than twenty languages. Her latest book, The
Yips, has been longlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. Nicola Barker
lives in east London.
