From the Man Booker shortlisted author of Harvest.
Alfred Busi, famed in his town for his music and songs, is mourning the recent death of his wife and quietly living out his days in the large villa he has always called home. Then one night Busi is attacked by a creature he disturbs as it raids the contents of his larder. Busi is convinced that what assaulted him was no animal, but a child, 'innocent and wild', and his words fan the flames of old rumour - of an ancient race of people living in the bosk surrounding the town - and new controversy: the town's paupers, the feral wastrels at its edges, must be dealt with. Once and for all.
Lyrical and warm, intimate and epic, The Melody by Jim Crace tracks the few days that will see Busi and the town he loves altered irrevocably. This is a story about grief and ageing, about reputation and the loss of it, about love and music and the peculiar way myth seeps into real life. And it is a political novel too - a rallying cry to protect those we persecute.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781509841387
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 206 g
Dimensions: 197 x 129 x 19 mm
Strange, unsettling, brilliant . . . one of our most original and inventive novelists - Observer
Seductively atmospheric . . . deeply moving - Daily Mail
Takes its place among his finest [novels] . . . grippingly symbolic and intensely real - Guardian
Hypnotic and powerful . . . enchanting and disconcerting - Irish Times
The Melody is at its most poignant on the subject of growing old . . . every sentence is packed with Crace's characteristic lyricism - The Times
Jim Crace writes with great flair and inimitable imagination . . . The Melody is lyrical and tender . . . one of Britain's most distinctive and accomplished novelists - Financial Times
Ambitious, powerful - Big Issue
Exquisite . . . another choice example of this twice-Booker-nominated English writer’s unique gift - National
A powerful novel about music, human nature and poverty . . . only Kazuo Ishiguro rivals Crace's range in terms of emotional power and unusual subject matter - Financial Times
The book retains a lingering power - Anthony Cummins, Observer
Impeccably wrought - TLS
Terrific . . . part political allegory, part dream and part deeply tender meditation on grief - Metro
As touching as a well-made melody - Daily Telegraph
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