Hollow in the Land

Description

Out walking Ada Robinson's dog while his wife drinks herself into a forgetful fug, Harry Maiden discovers an intricate system of caves beneath the wind turbines. Over at the Woolpack one night, Rosco re-encounters friendships he thought he'd left behind at the Stubbins paper mill. Mad old Gos leads a mysterious treasure hunt to the Bronze Age burial site at Whitelow Cairn. This is the Hollow in the Land: a corner of England teeming with mystery and intrigue and filled with real, flesh-and-blood characters, each of them at a different point along life's journey through childhood hopefulness, faded first love and middle-aged disillusionment. Hollow in the Land uncovers the small everyday mysteries of their lives - and ours.

James Clarke grew up in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire. His debut novel The Litten Path was written while studying at the Manchester Writing School, and went on to win the Betty Trask Prize. He lives in Manchester where he is working on his third book.

Full of insight, empathy and wry laughter * Guardian * A joy to read . . . Like McGregor, Clarke is attuned to landscape in a way that is both mineral and metaphysical -- Catherine Taylor * TLS * A beautifully melancholy and worldly book. Clarke's characters may lead quiet, thwarted lives but his prose is generous and electrifying, unjudgmental and assured. A brilliant new talent -- Colin Barrett, author * Young Skins * A magic portrayal of modern life in the peripheries -- Amy Liptrot, author * The Outrun * There is an American influence on James Clarke's writing - Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Denis Johnson - but the accent is English, matter-of-fact, which makes the vivid observations and moments of grace all the more vivid ... a story of England today. -- Anthony Cartwright, author * Iron Towns * Like Benjamin Myers and Jon McGregor, James Clarke is bringing a new consciousness to Northern England, an awareness of its uniqueness, natural beauty and threat are the basis of his writing ... He brings something of the sensibility of James Kelman to his writing, but also (perhaps) some of the American tradition of short stories set in one place, whether William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County or Chris Offutt's Kentucky Straight collection. James Clarke also shares with them one of the great qualities of the short story writer, the ability to craft a final sentence that keeps the story running off the page in the reader's mind. * Bookmunch * Full of insight, empathy and wry laughter -- M John Harrison, author of * Nova Swing *