Demi-Gods
Published on 2. November 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-4088-9040-0 (ISBN)
Description
A bold debut novel reminiscent of Emma Cline's The Girls; a story of love, lust and the spaces in between, from a 'captivating' (New York Times) new voice in fiction
It is 1950, and Willa's mother has a new beau. The arrival of his blue-eyed, sun-kissed sons at Willa's summer home signals the end of her safe childhood. As her entrancing older sister Joan pairs off with Kenneth, nine-year-old Willa is drawn to his strange and solitary younger brother, Patrick.
Left to their own devices, Willa is swept up in Patrick's wicked games. As they grow up, their encounters become increasingly charged with sexuality and degradation. But when Willa finally tries to reverse the trajectory of their relationship, an act of desperation has devastating results.
Unfolding between the wild freedoms of British Columbia and the glittering beaches of California, Demi-Gods explores a girl's attempt to forge a path of her own choosing in a world where female independence is suspect. Sensitive, playful and entirely original, Eliza Robertson is one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary literature.
It is 1950, and Willa's mother has a new beau. The arrival of his blue-eyed, sun-kissed sons at Willa's summer home signals the end of her safe childhood. As her entrancing older sister Joan pairs off with Kenneth, nine-year-old Willa is drawn to his strange and solitary younger brother, Patrick.
Left to their own devices, Willa is swept up in Patrick's wicked games. As they grow up, their encounters become increasingly charged with sexuality and degradation. But when Willa finally tries to reverse the trajectory of their relationship, an act of desperation has devastating results.
Unfolding between the wild freedoms of British Columbia and the glittering beaches of California, Demi-Gods explores a girl's attempt to forge a path of her own choosing in a world where female independence is suspect. Sensitive, playful and entirely original, Eliza Robertson is one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary literature.
Reviews / Votes
Gripping, original and richly descriptive ... A daring page-turner to devour in one sitting **** * Daily Express * The heat ripples into sentences dripping with delicious detail ... Its nod to the classics makes Demi-Gods comparable to Donna Tartt's The Secret History. As does the feeling of a new and important author arriving * Financial Times * Unsettling and compulsive, Demi-Gods is a fearless novel and Eliza Robertson a daring new novelist * John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies * Poetic, observant, tragic, gut-churning ... Like the deviant relationship at the novel's centre, there is something inescapable about Demi-Gods, so that by the end you feel as though you've been inches underwater, unable to surface, but desperate to * D. W. Wilson * Her skill as a writer is beyond question: every sentence feels crafted and she evokes America in the 1950s with such care that it seems to swim before the reader's eyes like a heat haze * Sunday Times * A book riddled with beauty - the way sunlight can transform a body, the depth of a moth's wings, the way a girl's body can beat to the same rhythm as the sea ... This novel will sneak under your skin * Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You * Dark and kinky with disturbingly good prose ... Elena Ferrante-esque * Metro * Demi-Gods combines the unnerving, naked female candour of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend with a darkened menace worthy of German director Michael Haneke * Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living Through Plastic Explosives * A feat of subtlety and daring ... Robertson portrays complex relationships with breathtaking precision and compassion, revealing the human bonds that protect, falter, survive and heal. I absolutely love this novel * Alison MacLeod, author of All the Beloved Ghosts * A young writer who succeeds in imagining the world afresh * Independent * A brutally beautiful coming-of-age story that sings with language as lovely, wild, and full of ominous longing as the young woman at its center * Robin Wasserman, author of Girls on Fire *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 135 mm
Weight
261 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4088-9040-0 (9781408890400)
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
Eliza Robertson attended the University of Victoria and the University of East Anglia, where she received the 2011 Man Booker Scholarship. In 2013, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and the Journey Prize. Her first story collection, Wallflowers, was shortlisted for the East Anglia Book Award and selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice. In 2015, she was named one of five emerging writers for the Writers' Trust Five x Five program. She lives in Montreal.
elizarobertson.com
@ElizaRoberts0n
elizarobertson.com
@ElizaRoberts0n