Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

***Jenni Fagan's new novel The Delusions is available now***

A GRANTA BEST YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST AND WINNER OF THE GORDON BURN PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION

'One of the most stunning literary experiences I've had in years'
IRVINE WELSH

'[A] weird and wonderful gothic confection'
GUARDIAN

'An audacious statement and a terrific read'
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

'Dazzlingly ambitious'
DOUGLAS STUART

'Gloriously transgressive'
IAN RANKIN

1910, Edinburgh. Jessie, the devil's daughter, arrives on the doorstep of an imposing tenement building and knocks on a freshly painted wooden door. She has been sent by her father to bear a child for a wealthy couple, but, when things go wrong, she places a curse on the building and all who live there - and it lasts a century.

Caught in the crossfire are the residents of 10 Luckenbooth Close, and they all have their own stories to tell. While the world outside is changing, inside, the curse creeps up all nine floors and through each door. Soon, the building's longest kept secret - the truth of what happened to Jessie - will finally be heard.

'She writes unlike any other author of her generation'
THE SCOTSMAN

'Bracingly good ... defies any sort of neat description'
FINANCIAL TIMES

'Poetic, high-octane, punchy'
SUNDAY TIMES

'Seedy, sexy and strange'
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Absolutely outstanding'
KIRSTIN INNES

One of the most stunning literary experiences I've had in yearsLUCKENBOOTH, sprawling the decades with its themes of repression and revenge, brings back something that has long been lacking in the British novel: ambition. If Alasdair Gray's Lanark was a masterly imagining of Glasgow, then this is the quintessential novel of Edinburgh at its darkest. -- Irvine Welsh
It's extraordinary. Make sure it's on your radar ... Definitely going to be one of my books of 2021, a gloriously transgressive novel of Edinburgh denizens past and present. -- Ian Rankin
Over time, 10 Luckenbooth Close sinks from grand residence to condemned squat with secrets seething in its walls ... Luckenbooth is a place of compacted time, where the past manifests as unquiet ghosts and the future bleeds into the present ... There's a force in Luckenbooth's bizarre assemblage. * The Times *
With Luckenbooth, [Jenni Fagan] gives us nine of Edinburgh's wildest and loneliest misfits ... Piles on claustrophobia and menace ... As we move between the characters' perspectives, gritty realism takes over from the gothic. This isn't fancy Edinburgh: at No 10 it's cigarettes, cocaine and Benzedrine for breakfast ... There are memorable creations ... Fagan's prose is poetic, high-octane, built on punchy sentences. Arresting descriptions of the city and its weather abound. This is not a novel that lacks energy. * Sunday Times *
Jenni Fagan's Luckenbooth reminded me of one of my favourite novels, Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual. Set in an Edinburgh tenement, it leaps across decades to tell the story of the curse that haunts No 10 Luckenbooth Close and its eccentric inhabitants. -- Alex Preston * Observer *

Jenni Fagan was born in Scotland. She won the Gordon Burn Prize for her memoir, Ootlin, which was also longlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Her debut novel, The Panopticon, saw her selected as a Granta Best Young British Novelist, and her second novel, The Sunlight Pilgrims, gained her Scottish Author of the Year. Jenni has been listed for the Encore Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Sunday Times Short Story Award, and the Pushcart Prize. She is a Doctor of Philosophy, a member of Liberty, and a Royal Society of Literature Fellow. She lives in Edinburgh with her son.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780099592198
ISBN 10	0099592193
Title	Luckenbooth
Author	Jenni Fagan
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cornerstone
Year published	2021-08-12
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.