Shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize

My Name is Yip

This is violent, anarchic American history with echoes of Sebastian Barry's Days Without End, but Paddy Crewe's take is startlingly original... Yip's tale is immersive and beautiful in unexpected places. On the strength of this sensational debut, you will be hearing a lot more about Paddy Crewe.

The Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Month

Paddy Crewe's ambitious, cinematic debut novel set during Georgia's gold rush in a semi-mythic American south that recalls both Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses and Faulkner's Light in August... A rollicking, page-turning wild west adventure, populated by a cast of arresting grotesques, with luminous imagery and an unforgettable protagonist... A remarkably vivid and energetic debut novel; a consummate linguistic performance.

Recalls the first-person conjuration of Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang and the brutality and lyricism of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses... A thrilling bildungsroman adventure, full of reversals of fortune and getaways.

Bold and impressive... This is a book with a distinct rhythm. The timbre of Yip's voice and the constant movement of characters through desolate landscapes creates an energy that seduces the reader. Crewe is an author of huge imaginative range.

My Name is Yip is so utterly itself and vivid. I haven't read anything quite like it. A mesmeric and rollicking adventure told by a narrator like no other - one who beguiles, moves, delights and also had me so worried for him, I was on the edge of my seat. Bold, thrilling, beautifully conceived and deeply atmospheric. I can't recommend it enough. Superb to the last full stop.

Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Mute but eloquent, Yip comes thrillingly into our midst to unfurl his singular and singing book of revelations. Murder, gold, lost fathers... Paddy Crewe has a 24-carat gift

Sebastian Barry, author of Days Without End

Magnificent. My Name is Yip is a sheer joy. What a voice, what a story. Yip is an incredible character, up there with Owen Meany and Holden Caulfield for sheer unforgettableness. It's a glorious novel.

Yip Tolroy may not speak, but his voice soars off the page in Paddy Crewe's terrific debut novel. Both an entertaining tale of gold, murder and the impulse for revenge, and a tender coming-of-age story amid the lawlessness of the American frontier.

Paul Howarth, author of Only Killers and Thieves

I love the compelling narrator, somehow a cross between Charles Dickens's David Copperfield and Charles Portis's Mattie Ross. And like True Grit, Yip takes us on a wild ride.

Michael Punke, author of The Revenant and Ridgeline

My Name is Yip accelerates into a wild gallop. There are pleasures (and horrors too) in this picaresque of a plot, but its real power lies in Yip's distinctive voice. From his first words he springs from the page, entirely himself and impossible to resist. An exuberant and original debut.

What a marvel this novel by Paddy Crewe is, what an unlooked-for firecracker of fury and beauty and rage and hope. My Name Is Yip is a tremendous novel, one that both harks back and burns the way forward, that is built of sentences that sing and roar.

My Name is Yip is a thrilling adventure story brim-full of humour, strangeness and charm

Ian McGuire, Booker Prize longlisted author of The North Water

A rollicking picaresque... This memorable string of adventures reads like a one-of-a-kind mash-up of Charles Dickens and Cormac McCarthy.

Paddy Crewe takes us on Yip's epic journey with meticulous skill. Told in a voice both idiosyncratic and poetic, this is a moving novel from a talented new writer.

Unforgettable: rich with imagery, distinctive and convincing

The Times ‘Best Books To Read This Summer’

Crewe has created a memorable hero - one who cannot speak, but in nonetheless an eloquent voice on the page.

Sunday Times 'Best Historical Fiction Books of 2022'

In this inventive spin on the classic western, the hero Yip is small, mute and hairless. He lives quietly in smalltown Georgia, where his feisty Mama runs the local store. Everything changes when gold is discovered nearby. Yip witnesses a murder and is forced to go on the run with his friend, Dud Carter. The classic buddy tale is revitalised by Paddy Crewe in this dazzlingly original debut.

The Times 'Best Paperbacks for March 2023'

I loved it. At times I thought I was reading Cormac McCarthy; such is the author&rsquo;s literary power and understanding of the human condition. This is a unique tale, colourfully, evocatively, wonderfully told.

A THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 
LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 
 
'Immersive and beautiful' The Times 
'A rollicking, page-turning wild west adventure' Guardian 
'Thrilling' New Statesman 
'I can't recommend it enough' Rachel Joyce 
'Paddy Crewe has a 24-carat gift' Sebastian Barry 
 
Yip Tolroy and his fiery Mama run the general store in Heron's Creek, Georgia. An uneventful life, until gold is discovered nearby and Yip is caught up in a bloody, grievous crime forcing him to flee. On the run, friendless and alone, he meets Dud Carter a savvy but unlikely companion. Together, they embark on a journey that thrusts them unwittingly into a world of menace and violence, of lust and revenge. And, as Yip and Dud's odyssey takes them further into the unknown - via travelling shows, escaped slaves and the greed of gold-hungry men - the pull of home only gets stronger. But what will they find there if they ever return?

Paddy Crewe

True Love

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