Description

‘Haunting. Geppetto’s voice, full of wistful overemphases and bewildered revelation, is absorbing as he takes in the oddity of his situation. And the book, sentence by sentence, offers much in which to luxuriate.’ – Sunday Times

‘Profound and delightful. It is a strange and tender parable of two maddening obsessions; parenting and art-making’ – Max Porter

‘Strange, moving and musical, it’s a delight’ – A. L. Kennedy

‘A re-imagining of Pinocchio, told from the viewpoint of the beast-entrapped Geppetto, it surprise and delights, and saddens and gladdens, from start to finish.’ – Jane Graham

I am writing this account, in another man’s book, by candlelight, inside the belly of a fish. I have been eaten. I have been eaten, yet I am living still.

‘Art objects live in the belly of this marvellous novel, images swallowed by text, sustained by a sublime and loving imagination. Like all Edward Carey’s work The Swallowed Man is profound and delightful. It is a strange and tender parable of two maddening obsessions; parenting and art-making’ Max Porter

‘Strange and lovely’ Rhik Samadder

‘A beautiful and dark meditation on fatherhood, mercy, redemption and the alchemy of isolation. Strange, moving and musical, it’s a delight’ A. L. Kennedy

From the acclaimed author of Little comes this beautiful and haunting imagining of the years Geppetto spends within the belly of a sea beast.

Drawing upon the Pinocchio story while creating something entirely his own, Carey tells an unforgettable tale of fatherly love and loss, pride and regret, and of the sustaining power of art and imagination.

Publisher Review

“Art objects live in the belly of this marvellous novel, images swallowed by text, sustained by a sublime and loving imagination. Like all Edward Carey’s work The Swallowed Man is profound and delightful. It is a strange and tender parable of two maddening obsessions; parenting and art-making.” Max Porter author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

‘A beautiful and dark meditation on fatherhood, mercy, redemption and the alchemy of isolation. Strange, moving and musical, it’s a delight’ A. L. Kennedy

Praise for Edward Carey’s LITTLE

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2020

LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2019

LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2019

LONGLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2019

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA CROWN AWARDS 2019

‘Don’t miss this eccentric charmer’ @MargaretAtwood

‘Absolutely brilliant’ Susan Hill

‘Rich and engrossing, there is an extraordinary potency to Carey’s material … A visceral, vivid and moving novel’ The Guardian

‘In this gloriously gruesome imagining of the girlhood of Marie Tussaud, mistress of wax, fleas will bite, rats will run and heads will roll and roll and roll. Guts’n’gore galore: I bloody loved it’ The Spectator

‘A tale as moving as it is macabre’ Mail on Sunday

‘One of the most original historical novels of the year… Macabre, funny, touching and oddly life-affirming, Little is a remarkable achievement’ Sunday Times

‘Beautifully published… poignant… absorbing’ Literary Review

‘Clever and intriguing’ Daily Mail

‘Marie’s story is fascinating in itself, but Carey’s talent makes her journey a thing of wonder’ New York Times

‘By turns witty, ghoulish, poignant and curiously life-affirming, Little is a historical novel unlike any other’ BBC History Magazine

‘It is Carey’s uniquely inventive style that makes this novel so completely, wickedly, addictive’ Big Issue

‘Edward Carey is one of the strangest writers we are privileged to have in this country’ The Observer

‘Carey creates an indelible character in Little, sprinkles idiosyncratic drawings throughout and folds his narrative in cunning ways…’ BBC

‘Full of rich historical detail and beautiful illustrations … a rare treat of a novel that will stay with you long after you turn the final page’ Heat

‘Compulsively readable: so canny and weird and surfeited with the reality of human capacity and ingenuity that I am stymied for comparison. Dickens and David Lynch? Defoe meets Atwood? Judge for yourself…’ Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked

‘Little is that rare thing – a unique novel with a unique and fully-realised voice, rich in deadpan wit and surgically precise observation. By turns tragic, bizarre and deeply moving, Little introduces readers to a heroine like no other and a book that will truly last. It is an absolute delight’ A.L Kennedy

‘Edward Carey writes wonderfully weird books about wonderfully weird things. This one imagines the life of Madame Tussaud-of wax museum fame-as a little girl. It’s a hefty historical novel that promises to be a pageturner, too’ Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere

‘Delightful, eccentric, heartfelt, surprising, philosophical’ Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries

‘Wonderful’ Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

‘What a bizarrely brilliant book. An absorbing, moving and darkly humorous reimagining of the life of Marie Groscholtz, the little servant girl who would become Madame Tussaud’ Anna Mazzola, author of The Unseeing

‘An exquisitely disturbing treasure of a novel. Sensual, unassumingly poignant, hilarious, heartbreaking, cruel, joyous: Edward Carey’s Little is a triumph and one of the most intoxicating novels I’ve read. I never wanted to leave Marie’s side’ Sarah Schmidt, author of See What I Have Done

‘A delightfully strange portrait of a young orphan honing her eccentric craft amid the tumult of the French Revolution. Carey’s flair for macabre whimsy has drawn comparisons to Tim Burton (take a look at the illustrations and you can see why). While death haunts this story, between vibrant characters and riveting historical detail, Little is a novel that teems with life’ Time