Darkmans (edit title)

Amanda approved Timothy Gray’s request to combine 2 books, including Darkmans, Friday, October 30 2009.

Timothy Gray edited the awards of Darkmans Friday, October 23 2009.

• Added an award: Man Booker Prize
• Added year of an award: Man Booker Prize 2007
• Checked finalist field of an award: Man Booker Prize

Timothy Gray submitted a request to combine 2 books, including Darkmans, Friday, October 23 2009.

Shelfari edited the description of Darkmans Sunday, August 2 2009.

• Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Darkmans is an exhilarating, extraordinary examination of the ways in which history can play jokes on us all... If History is just a sick joke which keeps on repeating itself, then who exactly might be telling it, and why? Could it be John Scogin, Edward IV's infamous court jester, whose favorite pastime was to burn people alive - for a laugh? Or could it be Andrew Boarde, Henry VIII's physician, who kindly wrote John Scogin's biography? Or could it be a tiny Kurd called Gaffar whose days are blighted by an unspeakable terror of - uh - salad? Or a beautiful, bulimic harpy with ridiculously weak bones? Or a man who guards Beckley Woods with a Samurai sword and a pregnant terrier? Darkmans is a very modern book, set in Ashford <a ridiculously modern town>, about two very old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. It's also a book about invasion, obsession, displacement and possession, about comedy, art, prescription drugs and chiropody. And the main character? The past, which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark - quite unspeakable - into its ear. The third of Nicola Barker's narratives of the Thames Gateway, Darkmans is an epic novel of startling originality.

Shelfari edited the contributors of Darkmans Thursday, July 23 2009.

• Added a contributor: Nicola Barker: (Primary Author)