The Wilderness

Description

An extraordinary debut novel by a young writer of remarkable gifts It's Jake's birthday. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer's. As the disease takes hold of him, the key events of his life shift, and what until recently seemed solid fact melts into surreal imaginings. Is his daughter alive or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? There was a cherry tree once, and a yellow dress, but what do they mean? Is there anything he'll be able to salvage from the wreckage? From the first sentence to the last, The Wilderness holds us in its grip. This is writing of extraordinary power and beauty.

Samantha Harvey is the author of The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind. She appeared on the longlists for the Bailey's Prize and the Man Booker, and the shortlists of the James Tait Black Award, the Orange Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness won the Betty Trask Award in 2009. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Brave and intelligent...a mesmerising work * Independent * A stunning composition of human fragility and intensity * Guardian * An extraordinary dramatisation of a mind in the process of disintegration ... Brilliant - read it now, before it scoops up all the prizes * The Times * Touches a resounding chord of melancholy. The author, whose debut this is, is very talented * Evening Standard * This is a finely written ode to memory, identity and love * Financial Times *