Author:Barry England,Sam Woolf
Brought to you by Penguin.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FIRST EVER BOOKER PRIZE IN 1969
Two men are on the run. They have four hundred miles to go across hostile territory. Soldiers on the ground track them day and night, a helicopter circles above, life becomes a second-by-second fight for survival. Each muscle movement, drop of sweat, glance and instinct matters. Every second counts.
Through long slogs across country, risky raids for supplies, moments of sheer panic, and under the intense pressure to survive, an unbreakable bond between two men is forged. This stunningly written, adrenaline-pumping novel is a little-known classic of its genre.
'Masterful and beautifully written. Riveting and compellingly authentic. Grips you like a vice from the first page and never lets you go' Damien Lewis
'England's prose has the tough, spare elegance of steel scaffolding... a brilliant achievement' The Times
© Barry England 1968 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Masterful and beautifully written. Riveting and compellingly authentic. Grips you like a vice from the first page and never lets you go
—— Damien LewisEngland's prose has the tough, spare elegance of steel scaffolding. His vocabulary is wide, and used with arresting precision. The speed of the narrative is impeccably controlled – long slogs over country, moments of blind panic, passages of demoralizing inactivity, hair-raising evasions, all building up to a central set-piece in a burning field... A brilliant achievement
—— The TimesShocked through with dramatic tension
—— Irish TimesOutstanding … I doubt if there has been a more impressive debut since William Golding’s
—— Daily TelegraphGripping . . . For someone with a keen interest in history, as well as a love of a well-written thriller, this book provides perfect escapism
—— SunPraise for Liberation Square
—— -Far more than an intellectual exercise - it is a gripping story, with heart
—— Daily Telegraph, Best Thrillers of the Year(A) richly imagined thriller . . . Tightly plotted, tense and set in a chillingly plausible world
—— Sunday MirrorAn authentic and chilling tale
—— SunAn interesting take on the 'What if we'd lost World War II?' debate. A gripping and well-imagined yarn
—— SunGripping
—— iA tight and compelling thriller
—— SFXA twisting murder mystery combined with a chillingly plausible alternative history of a divided Cold War London. Brilliant
—— Mason Cross, Richard and Judy bestselling author of The SamaritanRubin constructs a tantalising alternative world with 1950s Britain riven apart by its own version of the Berlin Wall - and all because the D-Day landings failed. Against this dystopian nightmare, the author overlays a murder mystery that's sure to appeal to fans of SS-GB, The Man in the High Castle, and Fatherland
—— David Young, CWA Dagger-winning author of Stasi ChildA gripping murder mystery set in an alternative 1950s Britain. Rubin's London, split between American and Soviet zones after a disastrous World War Two, is vividly realised and his story is elegantly constructed. One not to miss
—— William Ryan, author of The Constant SoldierIn the great tradition of SS-GB and Fatherland, Rubin's alternative-1950s murder mystery takes an ingenious premise - the Americans and the Soviets have carved up Britain between them after rescuing the country from the Nazis - and makes it come alive through sheer storytelling skill
—— Jake KerridgeImmersive
—— The SpectatorA lovely novel by a writer who lives and breathes France
—— Saga MagazineAnother terrific, intelligent read from Faulks
—— Reader's DigestA gripping book that I devoured in about three days; this dark book reminds us of the history that lurks around every street corner
—— Claudia Jacobs , PalatinateGaël Faye makes us smile, despite the seriousness of his words
—— MédiapartWhat is autobiographical, and what imagined? In the end it doesn’t matter, when he Gaël Faye gives life to the lost land of his childhood, with poetry and modesty
—— Agence France Presse MondialesSmall Country is a stirring and graceful tale of stolen innocence and fragmented identity. Hopeful, raw and deeply human, it is a modern classic in the making.
—— France TodayAn excellent novel, a model of restraint and quiet literary sophistication
—— The TimesCherry, Nico Walker’s outstanding debut, is a hard-hitting, ghoulishly funny novel about drug addiction, war and bank robbery.
—— Washington PostHeartbreaking, unadorned, radically absent of pretense, Cherry is the debut novel America needs now, a letter from the frontlines of opioid addiction and, almost subliminally, a war story.
—— Lea Carpenter, author of Eleven Days and Red, White, BlueNico Walker’s Cherry is a wrenching, clear-eyed stare-down into the abyss of war, addiction and crime, a dark tumble into scumbaggery, but it’s also deeply humane and truly funny. That is one of the reasons I love it so much: it makes you laugh and ache at the same time, in the manner of the great Denis Johnson.
—— Dan Chaon, author of Ill WillOne of the most exciting new American novelists.
—— Men's JournalHeavily indebted to the profane blood, guts, bullets, and opiate-strewn absurdities dreamed up by Thomas McGuane, Larry Brown, and Barry Hannah, Cherry tells a story that feels infinitely more real, and undeniably tougher than the rest.
—— A.V. ClubA bruising dispatch from the frontline of the American opioid crisis… the final quarter [of Cherry] rushes by in a cold sweat.
—— Anthony Cummins , Daily Mail[An] incendiary debut… Nico Walker writes with real rhythm, exhibiting a poet’s discrimination about adjectival choice and the relative length of clauses. It is a rare and remarkable achievement to turn such suffering into a novel of such finely calibrated beauty.
—— Lucian Robinson , Times Literary SupplementA gritty, addictive read.
—— Chloe Cherry , FaceI think everyone should read it – it is so horrific.
—— Kirsty Wark , LadyA well-received return to form
—— Charlotte Heathcote , Daily ExpressAstonishingly bold novel… [It] is Amis’s best work in years
—— Mail on SundayAmis’s best work since Money
—— Richard Susskind , The Times