
Orlam
Pj Harvey(Author)
Picador (Publisher)
Published on 10. November 2022
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-5290-9443-5 (ISBN)
Description
A special edition with extraordinary illustrations made by the author during the period in which the book was written.
Nine-year-old Ira-Abel Rawles lives on Hook Farm in the village of UNDERWHELEM. Next to the farm is Gore Woods, Ira's sanctuary, overseen by Orlam, the all-seeing lamb's eyeball who is Ira-Abel's guardian and protector. Here, drawing on the rituals, children's songs, chants and superstitions of the rural West Country of England, Ira-Abel creates the twin realm through which she can make sense of an increasingly confusing and frightening world.
Orlam follows Ira and the inhabitants of UNDERWHELEM month by month through the last year of her childhood innocence. The result is a poem-sequence of light and shadow - suffused with hints of violence, sexual confusion and perversion, the oppression of family, but also ecstatic moments in sunlit clearings, song and bawdy humour. The broad theme is ultimately one of love - carried by Ira's personal Christ, the constantly bleeding soldier-ghost Wyman-Elvis, who bears 'The Word': Love Me Tender.
Orlam is not only a remarkable coming-of-age narrative poem, but the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades. Orlam reveals PJ Harvey as not only one of the most talented songwriters of the age, but a gifted poet - whose formal skill, and transforming eye and ear for the lyric line, has produced a strange and moving poem like no other.
Nine-year-old Ira-Abel Rawles lives on Hook Farm in the village of UNDERWHELEM. Next to the farm is Gore Woods, Ira's sanctuary, overseen by Orlam, the all-seeing lamb's eyeball who is Ira-Abel's guardian and protector. Here, drawing on the rituals, children's songs, chants and superstitions of the rural West Country of England, Ira-Abel creates the twin realm through which she can make sense of an increasingly confusing and frightening world.
Orlam follows Ira and the inhabitants of UNDERWHELEM month by month through the last year of her childhood innocence. The result is a poem-sequence of light and shadow - suffused with hints of violence, sexual confusion and perversion, the oppression of family, but also ecstatic moments in sunlit clearings, song and bawdy humour. The broad theme is ultimately one of love - carried by Ira's personal Christ, the constantly bleeding soldier-ghost Wyman-Elvis, who bears 'The Word': Love Me Tender.
Orlam is not only a remarkable coming-of-age narrative poem, but the first full-length book written in the Dorset dialect for many decades. Orlam reveals PJ Harvey as not only one of the most talented songwriters of the age, but a gifted poet - whose formal skill, and transforming eye and ear for the lyric line, has produced a strange and moving poem like no other.
Reviews / Votes
'Orlam is an absorbing, singular, profound tale, set in the imaginary village of Underwhelem... Much of the writing has the rhythm of a spell - as if to stir cauldrons as well as hearts.' -- Kate Kellaway * The Observer *More details
Edition
Illustrated edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Edition type
Illustrated edition
Dimensions
Height: 205 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
752 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5290-9443-5 (9781529094435)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
PJ Harvey was born in Dorset in 1969. Her debut poetry collection, The Hollow of the Hand, was created in collaboration with photographer Seamus Murphy. Her poem 'The Guest Room' appeared in The New Yorker.
Harvey was awarded an MBE for services to music as well as an Honorary Degree in Music from Goldsmiths University. She has received numerous Grammy Award nominations, has scored music for several tv, film and theatrical productions, and is the only artist to have won the Mercury Prize twice with her albums Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Let England Shake.
Harvey was awarded an MBE for services to music as well as an Honorary Degree in Music from Goldsmiths University. She has received numerous Grammy Award nominations, has scored music for several tv, film and theatrical productions, and is the only artist to have won the Mercury Prize twice with her albums Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Let England Shake.