Description
'Disturbingly good ... Elena Ferrante-esque' Metro 'Comparable to The Secret History ... A new and important author' Financial Times 'Her skill as a writer is beyond question' Sunday Times It is 1950, and Willa's mother has a new beau. The arrival of his blue-eyed, sun-kissed sons at Willa's summer home signals the end of her childhood. As her entrancing older sister Joan pairs off with Kenneth, nine-year-old Willa is drawn to his solitary younger brother, Patrick. As they grow up Willa is swept up in Patrick's wicked games and their encounters become charged with sexuality and degradation. But when Willa finally tries to reassert her power, an act of desperation has devastating results.
'Disturbingly good ... Elena Ferrante-esque' Metro 'Comparable to The Secret History ... A new and important author' Financial Times 'Her skill as a writer is beyond question' Sunday Times
About the Author
Eliza Robertson attended the University of Victoria and the University of East Anglia, where she received the 2011 Man Booker Scholarship. In 2013, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and the Journey Prize. Her first story collection, Wallflowers, was shortlisted for the East Anglia Book Award and selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice. In 2015, she was named one of five emerging writers for the Writers' Trust Five x Five program and in 2017 she won the ABR Jolley Prize. She lives in Montreal. elizarobertson.com @ElizaRoberts0n
Reviews
Gripping, original and richly descriptive ... A daring page-turner to devour in one sitting * Daily Express *
Disturbingly good ... Elena Ferrante-esque * Metro *
Comparable to The Secret History ... A new and important author * Financial Times *
Poetic, observant, tragic, gut-churning ... There is something inescapable about Demi-Gods, so that by the end you feel as though you've been inches underwater, unable to surface, but desperate to * D. W. Wilson *
Sex is more a state of mind than an act in this lush, subtle novel ... The book is of a piece with Andre Aciman's 'Call Me by Your Name' and other soft-core explorations of how we mess one another up, and realize it only later ... Rarely have blurred lines, in weird sex or otherwise, been explored with such grace * New York Times *
Her skill as a writer is beyond question * Sunday Times *
Reminded me favourably of novels like Deborah Levy's Swimming Home and Emma Cline's The Girls * Wall Street Journal *
Demi-Gods traces the border between fear and attraction. The novel throbs with ominous details ... Yet, it is also a book riddled with beauty ... This novel will sneak under your skin * Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You *
Unsettling and compulsive, Demi-Gods is a fearless novel and Eliza Robertson a daring new novelist * John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies *
A feat of subtlety and daring ... Robertson portrays complex relationships with breathtaking precision and compassion, revealing the human bonds that protect, falter, survive and heal. I absolutely love this novel * Alison MacLeod, author of All the Beloved Ghosts *
Demi-Gods combines the unnerving, naked female candour of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend with a darkened menace worthy of German director Michael Haneke * Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living Through Plastic Explosives *
PRAISE FOR WALLFLOWERS: 'Reading Wallflowers is like taking a solo swim across a chilly lake. You become mesmerized by details - the silken texture of the water, the cool air on your arms as they rise and fall, the rhythm of your breath, the dark scrub of trees on the distant shore - without ever forgetting the mysteries and potential dangers that lurk beneath ... Captivating * New York Times *
A young writer who succeeds in imagining the world afresh * Independent *
The stories in Eliza Robertson's first collection are filled with lush flora and fauna, both real and figurative. Assured and ambitious * Guardian *
A significant new talent. The ordinary and everyday become imbued with a strange significance, albeit with a feather-light touch; Robertson's prose is never weighed down, even as it imparts a sense of uneasiness, anticipation. Robertson lets images vibrate with possibilities ... Every story, individually, is sharp, illuminating * Independent on Sunday *
Book Information
ISBN 9781408890387
Author Eliza Robertson
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 172g
'Disturbingly good ... Elena Ferrante-esque' Metro 'Comparable to The Secret History ... A new and important author' Financial Times 'Her skill as a writer is beyond question' Sunday Times
About the Author
Eliza Robertson attended the University of Victoria and the University of East Anglia, where she received the 2011 Man Booker Scholarship. In 2013, she won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and the Journey Prize. Her first story collection, Wallflowers, was shortlisted for the East Anglia Book Award and selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice. In 2015, she was named one of five emerging writers for the Writers' Trust Five x Five program and in 2017 she won the ABR Jolley Prize. She lives in Montreal. elizarobertson.com @ElizaRoberts0n
Reviews
Gripping, original and richly descriptive ... A daring page-turner to devour in one sitting * Daily Express *
Disturbingly good ... Elena Ferrante-esque * Metro *
Comparable to The Secret History ... A new and important author * Financial Times *
Poetic, observant, tragic, gut-churning ... There is something inescapable about Demi-Gods, so that by the end you feel as though you've been inches underwater, unable to surface, but desperate to * D. W. Wilson *
Sex is more a state of mind than an act in this lush, subtle novel ... The book is of a piece with Andre Aciman's 'Call Me by Your Name' and other soft-core explorations of how we mess one another up, and realize it only later ... Rarely have blurred lines, in weird sex or otherwise, been explored with such grace * New York Times *
Her skill as a writer is beyond question * Sunday Times *
Reminded me favourably of novels like Deborah Levy's Swimming Home and Emma Cline's The Girls * Wall Street Journal *
Demi-Gods traces the border between fear and attraction. The novel throbs with ominous details ... Yet, it is also a book riddled with beauty ... This novel will sneak under your skin * Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You *
Unsettling and compulsive, Demi-Gods is a fearless novel and Eliza Robertson a daring new novelist * John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies *
A feat of subtlety and daring ... Robertson portrays complex relationships with breathtaking precision and compassion, revealing the human bonds that protect, falter, survive and heal. I absolutely love this novel * Alison MacLeod, author of All the Beloved Ghosts *
Demi-Gods combines the unnerving, naked female candour of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend with a darkened menace worthy of German director Michael Haneke * Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living Through Plastic Explosives *
PRAISE FOR WALLFLOWERS: 'Reading Wallflowers is like taking a solo swim across a chilly lake. You become mesmerized by details - the silken texture of the water, the cool air on your arms as they rise and fall, the rhythm of your breath, the dark scrub of trees on the distant shore - without ever forgetting the mysteries and potential dangers that lurk beneath ... Captivating * New York Times *
A young writer who succeeds in imagining the world afresh * Independent *
The stories in Eliza Robertson's first collection are filled with lush flora and fauna, both real and figurative. Assured and ambitious * Guardian *
A significant new talent. The ordinary and everyday become imbued with a strange significance, albeit with a feather-light touch; Robertson's prose is never weighed down, even as it imparts a sense of uneasiness, anticipation. Robertson lets images vibrate with possibilities ... Every story, individually, is sharp, illuminating * Independent on Sunday *
Book Information
ISBN 9781408890387
Author Eliza Robertson
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 172g
