Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. To order a copy for £7.64 go to or call 03. Himself by Jess Kidd is published by Canongate (£8.99). Kidd hasn’t quite found a method of knitting all these different things together in a satisfying way, but the novel fizzes with potential. As a portrait of village hypocrisy and the dark things that lurk beneath the surface, it’s also compelling. There’s simply too much going on and focus is lost.Īs a noirish thriller with a supernatural edge, Himself is atmospheric and intriguing. But the story becomes rather baggy and tangled in its middle section. She hops nimbly between timelines and has imagination to spare. There’s a good deal of wit and some sparkling dialogue as Kidd sketches in the village’s inhabitants. Secrets that might rise from the grave under the right conditions and circumstances. I loved Himself, a uniquely beautiful blend of genres, a tale of love and loss, grief, and of secrets kept too long. Mahony’s story is told in tandem with Orla’s, the teenage girl destined to meet a messy end in the forest. Magical, moving, magnificent debut novel from Jess Kidd. They are always with him and his world is full of ghost-girls and transparent animals, bodies dangling from the branches of trees with their necks stretched out of shape. In her exceptional debut novel, Kidd explores the dark corners of the human mind in small-town 1970s Ireland, creating a haunting. Like the child in The Sixth Sense, Mahony can see the dead. Himself is published by Canongate, priced £12.99. The novel’s greatest strength is the way Kidd’s writing slides between humour and horror. Kidd remembers summers spent on the west coast of Ireland as a child, wandering around out the back of some relative’s farm.
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