Author: A.K. Blakemore
Publisher: Granta
Hardback
Staff Pick! Sam says…
Following on from her Desmond-Elliot prize-winning debut, The Manningtree Witches, A.K. Blakemore’s second novel takes us to the countryside near Lyon in the troubled years just before the first French revolution. It tells the story of Tarare, a young peasant who lives a life slantwise to the events that shook Europe, but who is nonetheless tossed by the convulsions. He is cast out of his village after an act of violence which leaves him with an irrepressible appetite, one which is exploited by those he meets for entertainment. This is a thrilling book that, like Blakemore’s previous novel, locates the point of contention of politics in the bodies of those that have been historically abused and neglected. It is history that thrums with blood, appetite and solidarity.