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Imprint: Vintage
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Published: 16/04/2020
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ISBN: 9781529110708
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Length: 336 Pages
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RRP: £8.99
‘Just downright brilliant... a transcendent, transporting experience’ Observer
A motherless girl grows up in isolated luxury, hidden from the world by her wealthy father. She believes their life together is normal – but as time passes, she has a growing sense that something between them is very wrong.
She cannot escape, so she seeks solace in her books. Her favourite tales are those that conjure ancient worlds – of angry gods and heroic mortals, one of whom will some day come to her rescue.
Soon, she will forget where the page ends and her mind begins.
‘A full-throttle blast of storytelling mastery’ Max Porter
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Imprint: Vintage
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Published: 16/04/2020
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ISBN: 9781529110708
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Length: 336 Pages
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RRP: £8.99
Reviews
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"Wondrous... a violent, all-action thrill ride shuttling between antiquity and the present... just downright brilliant... a transcendant, transporting experience... A helix, a mirror ball, a literary box of tricks… take your pick: this is a full-spectrum pleasure, mixing metafictional razzmatazz with pulse-racing action and a prose style to die for. I’ll be staggered if it’s not spoken of whenever prizes are mentioned this year"
Anthony Cummins, Observer
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"A beautifully rendered retelling…[and] a gripping novel that, despite its rollicking plot, never feels relentless, and is often very affecting indeed"
Jon Day, Financial Times
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"The extraordinary force and vividness of Haddon's prose ensure that The Porpoise reads [...] as a continually unfolding demonstration of the transporting power of stories... This is language that knows how to do things: sail a ship, make a gold buckle, negotiate the tides of the Thames. It's a stunningly effective combination of the quotidian and the mythic that pins impossibility to the page"
Justine Jordan, Guardian
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"Compelling, satisfying and moving... Haddon's writing is exquisite, balancing simple storytelling with searing insight"
Paul Connolly, Metro
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"The Porpoise is terrifically violent, with a bright, innocent ferocity … Haddon wants to restore agency to the female characters sidelined by the Antiochus legend. This could feel like a condescending attempt to end up on the right of history, but doesn’t"
Katy Waldman, The New Yorker
