Book description
Heading Inland is a funny, broody, saucy collection of stories about
the kind of people you sometimes meet but might prefer to ignore.
Barker creates a wonderfully fantastical and unimaginable world: an
unborn baby escapes an unsuitable mother through a secret belly-button
zip; a wayward and yet enigmatic man attempts to rescue eels from an
East End pie shop; a young woman discusses her fascination in other
women's breasts; a boy with his inside organs back to front desperately
seeks attention; and a bitter old woman becomes bent on war with a tramp.
This collection confirms Nicola Barker as one of the most versatile and
original writers of her generation with a brilliant unconventional
imagination she creates a new world that sparkles with dark humour.
'Strange and magical…Barker goes from strength to strength.' Sunday Telegraph
'A singular, soaring, stratospheric talent.' Scotland on Sunday
'Devastatingly funny and totally original…only Will Self can match her
for black humour and bizarre fabrications…No one else in England writes
like this. Don't miss this book.' Tatler
'A witty, demotic and unique talent.' The Times
'The language is unfussy, direct, at times colloquial, and then, just
when it is needed to produce the right emotional counterpoint, elegant
and formal…What could have been heavy-handed in another writer's hands
is here transformed into something light, enchanting and moving. Heading
Inland achieves everything it sets out to do. Highly recommended.'
Literary Review
'Another extremely accomplished collection. The writing is sharp,
intricate and stylish. Each story presents its own particular and
perfectly realized world…Nothing is too weird or too ordinary for Nicola
Barker. I can think of few writers who can make me think of Joe Orton
one minute and Saul Bellow the next.' Guardian Nicola Barker was born
in Ely in 1966 and spent part of her childhood in South Africa. Among
her seven previous novels are 'Darkmans' (short-listed for the 2007
Booker and Ondaatje prizes, and winner of the Hawthornden) and 'Wide
Open' (winner of the 2000 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award). She has also
written two prize-winning collections of short-stories, 'Love Your
Enemies' and 'Heading Inland', and her work has been translated into
more than twenty languages. She lives in east London.
