The Bellwether Revivals
1st Edition
Published on 2. February 2012
432 pages
978-0-85720-697-8 (ISBN)
Description
The debut novel from the 2025 Booker-longlisted author of Seascraper
'One of the finest British novelists of his generation' Times
'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel
'Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written' Douglas Stuart
'What a writer' Richard Osman
'A stunningly good debut ... that will keep readers up all night' Steven Galloway, author of the Cellist of Sarajevo
'The novel has at its lodestone Brideshead Revisited. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is also in the DNA here ... Readers will find themselves transfixed by this richly drawn cast of characters' Independent
Bright, bookish Oscar Lowe has grown to love the quiet routine of his life as a care assistant at a Cambridge nursing home, until the fateful day when he is lured into King's College chapel by the otherworldly sound of an organ. There he meets and falls in love with Iris Bellwether and her privileged, eccentric clique, led by her brother Eden. A troubled but charismatic music prodigy, Eden convinces his sister and their friends to participate in a series of disturbing experiments. However, as the line between genius and madness begins to blur, Oscar fears that danger could await them all ...
Benjamin Wood's brilliant debut novel will delight fans of The Secret History and Never Let Me Go.
Praise for The Bellwether Revivals:
'Read it. Quite a debut' Patrick Neate
'Suffused with intelligence and integrity' Guardian
'Effortlessly vivid ... Wood's confident, sometimes creepy novel draws you in ... and then, once you're inside, holds on, ever tightening the grip' Independent on Sunday
'There's more than a hint of Donna Tartt's The Secret History about this novel … highly effective' Daily Mail
'One of the finest British novelists of his generation' Times
'A huge talent' Hilary Mantel
'Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written' Douglas Stuart
'What a writer' Richard Osman
'A stunningly good debut ... that will keep readers up all night' Steven Galloway, author of the Cellist of Sarajevo
'The novel has at its lodestone Brideshead Revisited. Donna Tartt's The Secret History is also in the DNA here ... Readers will find themselves transfixed by this richly drawn cast of characters' Independent
Bright, bookish Oscar Lowe has grown to love the quiet routine of his life as a care assistant at a Cambridge nursing home, until the fateful day when he is lured into King's College chapel by the otherworldly sound of an organ. There he meets and falls in love with Iris Bellwether and her privileged, eccentric clique, led by her brother Eden. A troubled but charismatic music prodigy, Eden convinces his sister and their friends to participate in a series of disturbing experiments. However, as the line between genius and madness begins to blur, Oscar fears that danger could await them all ...
Benjamin Wood's brilliant debut novel will delight fans of The Secret History and Never Let Me Go.
Praise for The Bellwether Revivals:
'Read it. Quite a debut' Patrick Neate
'Suffused with intelligence and integrity' Guardian
'Effortlessly vivid ... Wood's confident, sometimes creepy novel draws you in ... and then, once you're inside, holds on, ever tightening the grip' Independent on Sunday
'There's more than a hint of Donna Tartt's The Secret History about this novel … highly effective' Daily Mail
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Benjamin Wood
The Bellwether Revivals
Book
12/2012
Scribner UK
€32.37
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Person
Benjamin Wood was born in 1981 and grew up in Merseyside. Seascraper is his fifth novel. His previous works have been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Book Prize, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the RSL Encore Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award and the European Union Prize for Literature. In 2014, he won France's Prix du Roman Fnac. He is a senior lecturer in creative writing at King's College, London, and lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.
Content
- Intro
- Halftitle page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Dedication page
- Contents
- Prelude
- ONE: Incidental Music
- TWO: Empires of the Passions
- THREE: A Reversible Lack of Awareness
- FOUR: The Harmony of What Exists
- FIVE: Fantasies of Unlimited Power
- SIX: The Rightful Order of Things
- SEVEN: Dead Reckoning
- EIGHT: The Remote Possibilities
- NINE: Near Allied
- TEN: Wives of the Above
- ELEVEN: The Treatment of Our Mutual Friend
- TWELVE: Her Ideal Life
- THIRTEEN: Ibidem
- FOURTEEN: Elephants
- FIFTEEN: A Light Went Off in the Organ House
- SIXTEEN: Waiting
- SEVENTEEN: New Wrongs
- EIGHTEEN: The Ordering of Material Affairs
- NINETEEN: The Visits
- TWENTY: Caterwaul
- TWENTY-ONE: Testimony
- Author's note
- Acknowledgements
