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Human Croquet

Human Croquet

The brilliant and profound second novel from the three-times Costa prizewinner and number one bestseller Kate Atkinson.

'Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns' Observer

Once it had been the great forest of Lythe. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor.

But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees. The Fairfaxes have dwindled too; now they live in 'Arden' at the end of Hawthorne Close and are hardly a family at all.

But Isobel Fairfax, who drops into pockets of time and out again, knows about the past. She is sixteen and waiting for the return of her mother - the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpège and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

Reviews

  • "Vivid, richly imaginative, hilarious and frightening by turns"

    Observer

  • "Huge, exhilarating, loving and detailed eruption of a novel...an utterly intoxicating display of novelistic elan...big and joyous, literary and accessible...storytelling at its buoyant best"

    The Scotsman

  • "Wonderfully eloquent and forceful Kate Atkinson goes at the same pace in her second novel as she did in her first...welcome back, wild north-easter...brilliant and engrossing"

    Evening Standard

  • "Vivid and intriguing...fizzles and crackles along...a tour de force"

    Independent

  • "Part ghost story, part murder mystery, this is an exquisitely written, literary novel that reads as compellingly as any thriller"

    Cosmopolitan

  • "A stunner of a second novel...a gutsy book, wrenched from the heart and written with tremendous force, immersing you in its strange, eccentric world"

    Marie Claire

  • "The quirky imagination, subversive humour and instinct for domestic chaos that Atkinson displayed in her first novel...are rampantly evident again"

    Publishers Weekly

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About the Author

Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is one of the world’s foremost novelists. She won the Costa Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prizewinning novels set around World War II are Life After Life, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award), and Transcription. She was appointed MBE for services to literature in 2011. Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Jackson Brodie returns in her new novel Big Sky.

Kate Atkinson

Related articles

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News

Kate Atkinson returns with Big Sky, a new Jackson Brodie novel

The first Jackson Brodie mystery since 2010's Started Early, Took My Dog, Big Sky will be published on 18 June 2019.
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Transcription, a new novel from Kate Atkinson, to be published in September 2018
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Extracts

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

A God in Ruins is the follow-up to Kate Atkinson’s Costa Novel Award-winning Life After Life. In this extract from chapter one, we join Teddy before he embarks on his final flight as a WW2 bomber, and return to Sylvie’s beloved Fox Corner, the setting for Teddy and Ursula’s childhood

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