A fierce and vivid story of grief and the search for identity, from a brilliant young female voice. Dying at twenty four is unnatural. But that's what Simon did, leaving his sister in shock, alone and haunted by the past. In the harsh but strangely comforting anonymity of Glasgow, she moves dazedly from artists' studios to smoky pubs, clutching at comfort wherever she can find it, in drink or sex. Her already fractured world seems now to have been torn apart, as she struggles with the question of whether secrets are better exposed or buried. But an unexpected trip to Orkney at last offers a change in her tense and frightening world. NEGATIVE SPACE is a harshly honest yet beautiful novel, and one of the most powerful debuts of recent times.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Strachan has a perfect eye for the small detail of suffering... The intimate, first-person voice drifts between past and present tense with astonishing effectiveness... This is a complex, mature novel with thought-provoking, well-crafted themes' Independent on Sunday
About the Author
Born in Irvine in 1975, Zoe Strachan gained an MA in Archaeology and Philosophy at Glasgow University, and returned later to do an MLitt in Creative Writing at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. She currently lives in Glasgow. Negative Space is her first novel.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unexpected delight - and life saver,
By A Customer
This review is from: Negative Space (Paperback)
I knew nothing of the author when I found this book in a remainder store recently. What drew me in was grief - I lost someone very close to me recently and have been reading like a madwoman trying to get through it. And on this topic, this book contains more truth than the thousands of self help titles out there.But to reduce this to a 'grief' book would be doing 'Negative Space' a disservice. What I appreciated most about it was the absolute authenticity of the writing. Some would dismiss this as an effect of the possibly semi-autobiographical content, but that would be a sloppy criticism. The author witholds from telling us the first person protoganist's name, a cunning and brilliant move - I felt like I was living through what she lived through. So we moved from moment to moment, with memories darting in and out in the way they do in life - you are trying to get by, something trips you up, you get back on the horse again. I couldn't have found this book at a better time. It's just what I needed - honest, yet hopeful. I wish I could write more, but perhaps that would be giving away too much. Go and seek it out yourself - you won't be disappointed. Bravo!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
