Carry Me Down - Softcover

Hyland, M. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841957348 ISBN 13: 9781841957340

Publisher: Canongate, 2006

Synopsis

John Egan is a misfit, 'a twelve-year old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant who insists on the ridiculous truth'. With an obsession for the "Guinness Book of Records" and faith in his ability to detect when adults are lying, John remains hopeful despite the unfortunate cards life deals him. During one year in John's life, from his voice breaking, through the breaking-up of his home life, to the near collapse of his sanity, we witness the gradual unsticking of John's mind, and the trouble that creates for him and his family. Set in early seventies Ireland, "Carry Me Down" is a deeply sympathetic take on one sad boyhood, told in gripping, and at times unsettling, prose. It plays out its tragic plot against a disarmingly familiar background and refuses to portray any of its lovingly drawn characters as easy heroes or villains.

About this title

About the Author:

Prize-winning novelist M J Hyland was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and the Encore prize for her second novel Carry Me Down, and has been appointed to the Centre for New Writing at University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Creative Writing. Carry Me Down, which charts a year in the profoundly troubled family life of twelve-year-old John Egan in early 1970s Ireland, was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Her work has been acclaimed by the likes of Ali Smith, Hilary Mantel and J M Coetzee, who commented, 'This is fiction writing of the highest order.'

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review. A spare, piercing testimony to the bewilderment and resiliency of youth, Hyland's second novel (following How the Light Gets In) filters the adult world through the distressed lens of adolescence, which makes every change look like a test of survival. John Egan is an extremely tall 11-year-old boy living in the small town of Gorey, Ireland, with the moody triumvirate of his mother, father and grandmother. As he faces the trials of home and school life, John feels he has no place in the world, and his frustration fuels odd obsessions: with the Guinness Book of World Records, with physical human contact and with his "gift" for detecting lies. His parents, already sorting through their own uneasy relationship, puzzle over their only son with doctors and teachers, pushing John to a moment of crisis, which may prove his undoing. John's voice is singular and powerful throughout: "I wait anxiously for my turn, thinking that he'll soon discover me and know that I'm different. I've already decided that I'll tell him about my gift." By the subtle, satisfying dénouement, one is rooting for John's place in the Guinness book and saving a space for him among the year's memorable characters. (Mar.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1841957348
• ISBN 13: 9781841957340
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256