The Many by Wyl Menmuir Paperback Book

Description: The Many by Wyl Menmuir On the surface, his move to the isolated village on the coast makes perfect sense. But the experience is an increasingly unsettling one for Timothy Bucchanan. A dead man no one will discuss. Wasted fish hauled from a contaminated sea. The dream of faceless men. Questions that lead to further questions. What truth are the villagers withholding? FORMAT Paperback CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016Observer Best Fiction of 2016Den of Geek Top Books of 2016Timothy Buchannan buys an abandoned house on the edge of an isolated village on the coast, sight unseen. When he sees the state of it he questions the wisdom of his move, but starts to renovate the house for his wife, Lauren to join him there.When the villagers see smoke rising from the chimney of the neglected house they are disturbed and intrigued by the presence of the incomer, intrigue that begins to verge on obsession. And the longer Timothy stays, the more deeply he becomes entangled in the unsettling experience of life in the small village. Ethan, a fisherman, is particularly perturbed by Timothys arrival, but accedes to Timothys request to take him out to sea. They set out along the polluted coastline, hauling in weird fish from the contaminated sea, catches that are bought in whole and removed from the village. Timothy starts to ask questions about the previous resident of his house, Perran, questions to which he receives only oblique answers and increasing hostility. As Timothy forges on despite the villagers animosity and the code of silence around Perran, he starts to question what has brought him to this place and is forced to confront a painful truth. The Many is an unsettling tale that explores the impact of loss and the devastation that hits when the foundations on which we rely are swept away. Notes A Cornish Gothic debut novel, set in an isolated village on the coast. Timothy Bucchanan faces unsettling questions when he moves to the village: why will no one discuss the death of a local man? Author Biography Wyl Menmuir is a novelist and editor based in Cornwall. His bestselling debut novel, The Many (Salt), was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. In November 2016, Nightjar Press published a limited-edition chapbook of his story Rounds and in 2017, the National Trust published his story, In Dark Places. He has written for Kneehigh Theatre, Radio 4s Open Book, the Guardian and the Observer, and is a regular contributor to the journal Elementum. He teaches creative writing at Falmouth University and is co-creator of Cornish writing centre The Writers Block. Review The Many unfolds like an unsettling dream, shifting illogically, asking the reader to accept leaps from reality to what seems like it may be fantasy (or may be a matter of perception). But its not just a strange fable, there is humanity in it too: Ethans palpable grief for Perran; the locals struggle to adapt to a world in which their former livelihoods have become obsolete; the touches of tenderness in Timothy and Laurens scenes together. Its portrayal of a community left behind by technology and bureaucracy, suspicious of the threat represented by outsiders, is recognisable and timely – perhaps even more so now than the author may have intended. * Learn This Phrase *Though it was perhaps not written with this in mind, reading the novel during the nightmarish toxicity of the EU Referendum gives it an interesting prescience in its exploration of a failing, unwelcoming communitys reaction to an outsider, the decaying environment that surrounds them both and the looming warnings of a distant bureaucracy. That fishing quotas, ecology and environmental regulations are also part of the ongoing debate feeds into that sense of a discussion in microcosm. The sense of loss that permeates here is not just related to the personal, but to the social and communal as well. * Film and Other Assorted Buffery *The sparse prose is dark and intense, strikingly written with a haunting quality that sends shivers through the soul. * neverimitate *This book is powerfully written and haunting. Always teetering on the edge of the gothic, Menmuir describes a coastal community that is dreamlike, slightly out of focus, with its own rules that Timothy never grasps. At the same time, it is rooted in the real world: remote bureaucracy, plummeting fish stocks and maritime pollution have blighted the lives of the fishermen. * Blue Book Balloon *Menmuirs homespun horror has flashes of Daphne du Mauriers ghost-gothic and John Wyndhams dystopia while displaying its own individuality and flair … Menmuir steers a steady course; the result is profound and discomfiting, and deserving of multiple readings. -- Catherine Taylor * The Guardian *At about the two-thirds point, I started to realize that I was not reading a conventional, if slightly off-kilter and moody, story about a man having a hard time getting his life back together in a semi-hostile village. No, The Many is a horrific, beautifully horrific, tale that I cannot shake, as much as I may like to. * The Mookse and the Gripes *It creates an effective sense of tension and psychological suspense along the lines of Henry James The Turn of the Screw but passages where the men are out fishing in the gloom also invoke a feelings of intense meditation and a primal self-sufficiency similar to Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea. I was slowly drawn into the novels bizarre climate of secrecy and impending doom. The Many is a brisk, impactful novel which poignantly portrays grief, solitude and an inhibited state of consciousness. * Lonesome Reader *an intriguing first novel -- Fiona Wilson * The Times *This is a novel that has to be read at one go but one of those rare stories that once you have reached the end you start reading it all over again. There are moments one has to pause and wonder if it is reminiscent of similar writing in the past and then realise it would be unfair to compare The Many to any other writing. Wyl Menmuirs style is wholly original, it grips one with its exquisitely chiselled style to create a stunningly beautiful and memorable novel much like the Cornish coast is. -- Jaya Bhattacharji Rose * Confessions of an avid bibliophile *I found myself totally gripped. The kind of book where you end it still wanting answers and yet are unsure of the questions. Its a wonderful book and the first book Ive finished this year that I immediately wanted to read again. * Information Overlord *A parable on ecological destruction, a commentary on monotony and parochialness, an obscure examination of sorrow, an investigation into the mysterious workings of the psyche – The Many is weird and disorienting, yes, but original and wonderful too. * On Art and Aesthetics *Paperback of the Week It would be wrong to give away the precise reasons for his protagonists state, but as Menmuirs allegory becomes decipherable, it is increasingly affecting, and the moment when we understand how the bay and its darkly looming ships might be the warped echo of an earlier, shattering scene is one of great power. -- Stephanie Cross * The Observer *He deserves 10 out of 10 when it comes to the creation of atmosphere, and Menmuir can certainly write… A writer to watch. * The Independent *If it is possible to describe a book as being rich on spare detail then The Many is it, like a stock reduced to its very essence, and I suspect it was this lack of extraneous waffle and digression in the company of Wyl Menmuirs beguiling writing style that grabbed my attention and kept me wedded to this novel in the days immediately after Port Eliot festival. * Dovegreyreader *An intriguing, evocative and formally ambitious debut. -- Luke Brown * Financial Times * Promotional Ominous, subtle and beautiful - an intensely resonant trawling of sufferings deep currents. -- Michael Marshall Smith In this beautiful and frightening novel, Wyl Menmuir understands that loss is an enormous anchor from which everyone swings on the tide. His characters know they can never hoist this anchor, they only know they must try; otherwise the lifting lines become heavy chains dragging them to the bottom. The Many then captures the ecstasy observed on the faces of the drowning in the moment they surrender themselves to the sea. -- Mark Richard, author of Fishboy Details ISBN1784630489 Author Wyl Menmuir Pages 160 Publisher Salt Publishing Year 2016 ISBN-10 1784630489 ISBN-13 9781784630485 Format Paperback Media Book Publication Date 2016-06-15 Imprint Salt Publishing Place of Publication Cambridge Country of Publication United Kingdom Illustrations No AU Release Date 2016-06-15 NZ Release Date 2016-06-15 UK Release Date 2016-06-15 Series Salt Modern Fiction Alternative 9781784630652 DEWEY 823.92 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! 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