Description

‘An impeccable work of folk horror’ Irish Times

The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby’s son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Convinced that the boy still lives on in some form, and desparate to make contact, Juliette seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Whereas Ricahrd, an art historian, tries to blot out the pain of his grief by turning his attention to the field opposite their house, Starve Acre. Patiently he digs in the barren soil looking for the roots of a legendary oak tree but unearths something which ought to have remained buried.

‘I will confidently predict that no reader will guess where it’s heading . . . Hurley’s ability to create a wold that’s like ours in many ways and really not in many others is again on full display’ The Times

Publisher Review

A spookier take on parental guilt came from Hurley's chiller Starve Acre, about a couple mourning the death of their nightmare-plagued five-year-old in the Yorkshire Dales * Daily Mail, Books of the Year * Hurley shows a wicked sense of control, masterminding a genuinely unsettling final act that runs to the very last sentence * TLS * One of the most interesting and eerie writers of contemporary horror * Independent * Hurley is a graceful, confident stylist and for this reason alone he is a joy to read * Guardian * Hurley shows himself a master of both murky menace and graphic prose * Sunday Times, Fiction Book of the Year pick * The best closing line of any novel we have read this year . . . A strange and unsettling read * The Times, Fiction Book of the Year pick * A perfectly pitched tale of suspense and the dark side of folklore * Press Association * One of the most interesting and eerie writers of contemporary horror * The Scotsman * Startlingly and daringly original, a story that shivers itself deeply into the consciousness * David Park, author of the 2018 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Travelling in a Strange Land * A nerve-shredding feat of compression * The i * An uncanny, unnerving work of rural Gothic . . . Starve Acre is a very fine novel, and quite a singular reading experience . . . the final third of Starve Acre is one of the most unnerving things I've ever read * Irish Independent * Andrew Michael Hurley has been carving out a niche for himself as a notable writer of modern gothic since the success of his Costa winning debut, The Loney, and his third novel, Starve Acre, offers an atmospheric tale in the same tradition of English folk-horror . . . Hurley has a fine talent for evoking the menace of his northern landscapes . . . an enjoyably chilling tale for a wild winter night * Observer * Hurley's striking prose evokes a rising sense of dread in this brief, unforgettable novella * Metro * Expertly paced . . . creepy and marvellous * Daily Mail * The new novel from the award winning author of The Loney is a further entry in a genre that Hurley is fast making his own . . . Hurley adeptly creates an unsettling atmosphere and keeps us guessing about the extent to which his characters are haunted by grief, by more primordial supernatural forces, or both. This chilling story will set spines tingling and teeth on edge: just the thing for Halloween * Daily Express * Brilliantly written . . . Evoking Ted Hughes's style of writing, Hurley is adept at seamlessly intertwining the malignant savagery of nature with abstract use of imagery for horror effect. He has this uncanny ability of bringing the palpable supernatural to life with a neat, serene turn of phrase. All these hallmarks of superlative writing are in full display in this impeccable work of folk horror. Starve Acre is a haunting portrait of what happens in the liminal space between grief and sanity * Irish Times * This kind of book, as with ghost stories from M.R. James to Susan Hill, demands a phenomenal control of language and atmosphere to work at all, and Hurley provides it in spades . . . This is a wonderful story of its type that has all the qualities of unease, nastiness, terror, psychological trauma and implied physical revulsion one expects from folk horror. But it's nothing to the denouement it foreshadows * The Spectator * A perfectly pitched tale of suspense and the dark side of folklore . . . perfect, page-turning reading for a dark night * Herald * Beautifully written and triumphantly creepy * Mail on Sunday * I will confidently predict that no reader will guess where it's heading, particularly in the novel's startling last sentence . . . Hurley's ability to create a world that's like ours in many ways and really not in many others is again on full display . . . Starve Acre, leaner and perhaps even more unsettling than its predecessors, may well be his best novel so far * The Times * A tour de force of physiological fantasia . . . Writing of this quality - sensuous, exact, observant - ensures that other scenes, too, pulse with vitality . . . Hurley's gothic storylines send spectres of deathliness through his fictional world. His prose brings it vividly alive -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times *