The Land of Decoration - Hardcover

McCleen, Grace

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805094946 ISBN 13: 9780805094947

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2012

Synopsis

A mesmerizing debut about a young girl whose steadfast belief and imagination bring everything she once held dear into treacherous balanceIn Grace McCleen's harrowing, powerful debut, she introduces an unforgettable heroine in ten-year-old Judith McPherson, a young believer who sees the world with the clear Eyes of Faith. Persecuted at school for her beliefs and struggling with her distant, devout father at home, young Judith finds solace and connection in a model in miniature of the Promised Land that she has constructed in her room from collected discarded scraps€”the Land of Decoration. Where others might see rubbish, Judith sees possibility and divinity in even the strangest traces left behind. As ominous forces disrupt the peace in her and Father's modest lives€”a strike threatens her father's factory job, and the taunting at school slips into dangerous territory€”Judith makes a miracle in the Land of Decoration that solidifies her blossoming convictio

About this title

Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2012: “In the beginning there was an empty room, a little bit of space, a little bit of light, a little bit of time.” Extraordinarily bright for her 10 years but isolated by her strange faith, Judith McPherson has always known she’s living in the End Times, anticipating a new life in “a land flowing with milk and honey.... the decoration of all lands.” Life with her widowed Father feels oppressively quiet, so out of candy wrappers and shoe laces and other cast-off stuff, she creates an intricate replica of her town in her room--one that lives by the rules of her internal logic--and makes the astonishing discovery that what she does in her bedroom’s Land of Decoration gives her miraculous abilities in this one. Egged on by the voice of God (or one more sinister), she expands her powers until real life teeters on a tenuous edge. A visceral and memorable depiction of an imaginative child trying to reconcile her idyllic interior life with a harsher world, Grace McCleen’s visionary debut grapples with essential questions: how to feel your way forward when faith blurs with madness, or grief cleaves a parent from their child, or our imagined sense of control cedes to life’s wondrous chaos. --Mari Malcolm

About the Author

Grace McCleen studied English Literature at Oxford University and The University of York before becoming a full-time writer and musician. She lives in London. The Land of Decoration is her first novel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0805094946
• ISBN 13: 9780805094947
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320