In the tradition of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a darkly humorous modern classic of Scottish literature about a doomed adolescent growing up in the mid-20th century — featuring a new introduction by Maggie O'Farrell, award-winning author of Hamnet.Author Elspeth Barker masterfully evokes the harsh climate of Scotland in this atmospheric gothic tale that has been compared to the works of the Brontës, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edward Gorey. Immersed in a world of isolation and loneliness, Barker's ill-fated young heroine Janet turns to literature, nature, and her Aunt Lila, who offers brief flashes of respite in an otherwise foreboding life. People, birds, and beasts move through the background in a tale that is as rich and atmospheric as it is witty and mordant. The family's motto — Moriens sed Invictus (Dying but Unconquered) — is a well-suited epitaph for wild and courageous Janet, whose fierce determination to remain steadfastly herself makes her one of the most unforgettable protagonists in contemporary literature.
“This is an extraordinary novel: original, beautiful yet tough, with a sympathetic outsider of a heroine whose tragic fate is depicted on the very first page.… Barker’s love of the classics, her focus on mothers and daughters, and her remarkable evocation of landscape, should mark her out as one of Scotland’s principal writers.”
“Elspeth Barker’s is a wholly original literary voice.… Steeped in classical allusions, rich in Scottish and natural history, fantastical in its highly wrought characters, this coming-of-age-novella is as passionately intense as it is wittily acerbic.… Propelled by the sheer force of words, the horrors and humours plunge on, observed by an eye both youthful and perspicacious.… The reader feels unalloyed joy, and occasional winces, on every page.”
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“A sparky, funny work of genius about class, romanticism, social tradition and literary tradition, and one of the best least-known novels of the twentieth century.”
“A wonderful oddity — brief, vivid, eccentric, written with ferocious zest and black humour.”
“Witty, civilized.… With ravishing descriptions of nature which manage to be simultaneously rapturous and precise.”
“A poetic and passionate description of adolescence. The words sing in their sentences. A world is evoked that has shades of the Brontë sisters and of Poe.…
“An absolute sumptuous treat of a book.”
“A poetic and blackly comic account of an unhappy childhood in a remote setting, re-created so sensuously it makes you feel the wind on the heath. Exquisite.”
“Beautifully written.… A remarkable debut.”
