Electricity
Published on 4. September 2008
336 pages
978-0-330-47522-8 (ISBN)
Description
Electricity is now a film starring Agyness Deyn.
Lily's epilepsy means she's used to seeing the world in terms of angles - you look at every surface, you weigh up every corner, and you think of your head slamming into it - but what would she be like without her sharp edges?
Prickly, spiky, up-front honest and down-to-earth practical, Lily is thirty, and life's not easy but she gets by. Needing no-one and asking for nothing, it's just her and her epilepsy: her constant companion.
But then Lily's long-estranged mother dies, and Lily is drawn back into a world she thought she'd left behind. Forced to renegotiate the boundaries of her life, she realises she has a lot to learn - about relationships, about the past, and about herself - and some difficult decisions ahead of her.
Lily's epilepsy means she's used to seeing the world in terms of angles - you look at every surface, you weigh up every corner, and you think of your head slamming into it - but what would she be like without her sharp edges?
Prickly, spiky, up-front honest and down-to-earth practical, Lily is thirty, and life's not easy but she gets by. Needing no-one and asking for nothing, it's just her and her epilepsy: her constant companion.
But then Lily's long-estranged mother dies, and Lily is drawn back into a world she thought she'd left behind. Forced to renegotiate the boundaries of her life, she realises she has a lot to learn - about relationships, about the past, and about herself - and some difficult decisions ahead of her.
Reviews / Votes
Ray Robinson's Electricity is a thorny, uncompromising novel, with attitude. It is also -- thanks to Lily O'Connor, its sharp-edged, hard-living, tough-talking narrator -- mesmerising, uplifting and unexpectedly tender -- Jim Crace, Booker-shortlisted author of HARVEST An energetic debut, bristling with talent . . . It's black, savage, funny and rather uncomfortably haunting * The Times * An eviscerating debut novel . . . Its fast, furious plot, kaleidoscopic imagery, blunt observations and a wry, ingenuous, hugely compassionate heroine make Electricity a breathtaking assault on the senses * Guardian * This visceral debut novel is narrated by Lily O'Connor, a darkly defiant 30-year-old epileptic whose life is punctuated by violent seizures. Robinson chronicles her desperate pursuit of her brother, Mickey, from Blackpool to London with a visual language so vivid you're steamrollered right into their subterranean world. * Vogue *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
File size
1,14 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-330-47522-8 (9780330475228)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
When Electricity was first published in 2006 it was shortlisted for both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Authors' Club First Novel Award. It is now a film from Stone City Films and stars Agyness Deyn as Lily. Robinson's other novels are The Man Without (2008), Forgetting Zoe (2010), and Jawbone Lake (2014). Robinson is a post-graduate of Lancaster University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Creative Writing in 2006, and is a Literary Mentor and Reader for The Literary Consultancy.
