The Seed Collectors

Description

'I have no idea why everyone thinks nature is so benign and glorious and wonderful. All nature is trying to do is kill us as efficiently as possible.' Great Aunt Oleander is dead. To each of her nearest and dearest she has left a seed pod. The seed pods might be deadly, but then again they might also contain the secret of enlightenment...A complex and fiercely contemporary tale of inheritance, enlightenment, life, death, desire and family trees, The Seed Collectors is the most important novel yet from one of the world's most daring and brilliant writers. As Henry James said of George Eliot's Middlemarch, The Seed Collectors is a 'treasurehouse of detail' revealing all that it means to be connected, to be part of a society, to be part of the universe and to be human.

Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her other novels include Bright Young Things, PopCo, The End of Mr.Y which was longlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, and Our Tragic Universe. She teaches creative writing at the University of Kent.

Entrancing -- NEIL GAIMAN A family saga of human fallibility, love, eccentricity, sex, spirituality, and of a lost, legendary, coincidentally lethal route to absolute transcendence . . . [Thomas] is a splendid novelist -- WILLIAM GIBSON Positively luminous - funny, daring, fizzing with ideas and altogether captivating * * DAILY MAIL * * A far-out botanical adventure in ways which are brutally funny and profound all at once. Barbed, casually genius, philosophical and intensely readable. A joy -- MATT HAIG Filthily gorgeous . . . Imagine Muriel Spark's disreputable niece * * SPECTATOR * * A delightful compound of fantasy and traditional family saga... a modern fairytale, with flashes that are savagely funny * * THE TIMES * * You won't read a livelier tale about sex, death and out-of-body experiences all year * * SUNDAY TIMES * * This magical family saga will cement Thomas' position at the literary top table * * RED * * Smart, talented, inventive, and diverting . . . This is Thomas' most accomplished novel yet. There is a question at the heart of this novel . . . that captures the paradox of being human * * SLATE * * Her prose is splendidly alive, full of unexpected phrases and delicious cadences . . . like Pratchett, Thomas blends her flippancy and her philosophy perfectly. A fantastical family saga * * GUARDIAN * * Thomas has the mesmerising power of a great storyteller * * FINANCIAL TIMES * * Fun and thoughtful * * EMERALD STREET * * Sharp writing and sharper wit * * THE LIST * * A smart and witty family drama, taking in secrets, sex, suicide, celebrity and the meaning of life * * GLAMOUR * * A mindbending novel of family drama * * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING * * How I love her work! * * GRAZIA * * She has woven her distinct brand of mystery and intrigue into a complex family saga * * OBSERVER * * Extremely good fun...riotous, gorgeous, full of flamboyant escapades * * MONOCLE ARTS REVIEW * * A rewarding family saga * * SCOTSMAN * * With each novel, Thomas's ambitions have grown larger, and this is her most sophisticated... in a world of fading wunderkinds, Scarlett Thomas is proving to be the real deal * * CATHOLIC HERALD * *