Winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year 2016
MEDIA REVIEWS
British Book Awards Book of the Year 2017
Strange News Out of Essex...
The Essex earth had bucked as if trying to shake off all its towns and villages; for twenty seconds,no more,a series of convulsions that paused once as if breath were being drawn and then began again.
Set in 1893 and firmly rooted in the author's home county of Essex,the novel centres on the character of Cora Seaborne,a widow freed from a controlling,unhappy marriage. Retreating to the Essex countryside with her son,she hears the rumours surrounding the so-called'Essex Serpent',a creature of folklore being blamed for a spate of deaths and disturbances and the cause of escalating panic in the local community. Her ensuing investigations bring her into contact with a clergyman,William Ransome,a man convinced of finding the answer to local hysteria in faith,just as Cora is on finding it in science. Despite their differing opinions,their lives become ever-more enmeshed,finding themselves bound to each other in ways neither could anticipate.
Publisher: Profile Books LtdISBN: 9781788169622Number of pages: 448Weight: 340 gDimensions: 198 x 128 x 30 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'The Essex Serpent is one of the most memorable historical novels of the past decade.'- Nick Rennison, Sunday Times
'An irresistible novel that taps the vein of Victorian gothic and British myth.'- Daily Telegraph
'Hardy-esque...a rich and complex novel but also a deeply enjoyable read,with warm humanity at its core.'- Jeff Robson, iPaper
'An irresistible novel...Perry's Victoriana is the most fresh-feeling I can remember...Her prose is often beautiful...the tone is a masterstroke ...'- Charlotte Runcie - The Daily Telegraph
'One day this book will make a fine BBC period drama...Perry is a wonderful descriptive writer with a remarkable talent for making the familiar strange.'- The Times
'The Essex Serpent is a novel to relish: a work of great intelligence and charm,by a hugely talented author.'- Sarah Waters
'Had Charles Dickens and Bram Stoker come together to write the great Victorian novel,I wonder if it would have surpassed The Essex Serpent'- John Burnside
'A big,warm,generous novel that wears its considerable wisdom lightly,The Essex Serpent is an absolute pleasure from start to finish - I truly didn't want it to end.'- Melissa Harrison
'The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (is) a joyous and beguiling book that wrapped itself around me rather like its eponymous monster.'- Cathy Rentzenbrink
'A blissful novel of unapologetic appetites,where desire and faith mingle on the marshes,but friendship is the miracle.. here is a writer who understands life.'- Jessie Burton
'A book to make you want to be a better person.'- Justine Jordan, The Guardian
'I loved this book. At once numinous,intimate and wise...It is so good its pages seem lit from within. As soon as I'd finished it I started reading it again.'- Helen MacDonald
'A sinuous historical novel by the genius that is Sarah Perry.'- Lucy Mangan, Stylist
'An historical novel with real depth...Perry writes fantastically,and this deserves attention for the rest of the year.'- Steven Cooper, The Bookseller
'An intelligent,lushly written gothic yarn.'- Claire Allfree, Metro
'Sarah Perry's new novel The Essex Serpent is a thing of beauty inside and out. For only a second novel it's a stunning achievement,one for which I predict prize nominations galore...'- Lucy Scholes, Independent online
'A richly themed and exhilarating novel ...'- Elizabeth Buchan, The Daily Mail
'The Essex Serpent is shot through with such a vivid,lively sense of the period that it reads like Charles Dickens at his most accessible.'- Charlotte Heathcote, The Daily Express
'Based on The Essex Serpent and its predecessor,it's clear that Perry is a gifted writer of immense ability.'- Sinead Gleeson, Irish Times
'An eerie tale of science and superstition...gothically good.'- Eithne Farry, The Sunday Express
'The Essex Serpent is rare in being a novel that is both highly diverting and intellectually rewarding,in taking its thematic interests seriously while playing delightedly with romance and the Gothic.'- Sarah Moss, The Lancet
'It's a brilliantly written story of one woman's life and relationships in late Victorian England and my favourite historical novel since Sarah Waters'The Little Stranger.'- Irish Independent
Sarah Perry
In three novels - After Me Comes the Flood,The Essex Serpent and Melmoth - the Chelmsford-born Sarah Perry has boldly established herself at the front rank of British novelists,wielding an acute sense of place and history with a wildly irrepressible energy. Now a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature,Sarah Perry's landmark gothic fantasy The Essex Serpent was awarded the Waterstones Book of the Year for 2016.
Visit the Sarah Perry author page
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