A Natural

Supremely accomplished and moving… A masterful performance… This is a gripping, mature, important novel. It would be a travesty if it doesn’t win prizes. -- William Skidelsky * Observer *
A layered and subtle exploration of masculinity, fear and desire, A Natural is as good a novel as I’ve read in years. The poignancy of Ross Raisin’s characters are equalled only by the brilliance of his writing. -- John Boyne
Admirable … genius … amazing… vertiginous. -- Claire Lowdon * Sunday Times *
A Natural is a brilliant, deft and moving coming of age novel about the nature of masculinity and sexuality set against the backdrop of sport. Sensitively and beautifully drawn, it confirms Ross Raisin as a superb writer. -- Carol Ann Duffy
Most novels about football aren’t really about football… They tend to avoid describing the game itself, with its strange mixture of pelting energy and exquisite boredom. Instead they shunt it into the background or repackage it as a metaphor, allowing the simple whacking of a ball into the net to be used as a way of writing about far less tangible goals. Ross Raisin’s latest novel is refreshingly different. Following the fortunes of two lower-league footballers, it is a bold attempt to capture sport in the raw… pitch-perfect. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Times *
A brave, subtle novel… To a non-fan, the literary football novel can seem a little daunting… Luckily, Ross Raisin’s exceptional new novel addresses and overturns these preconceptions and conventional notions of masculinity in the most unexpected and sophisticated fashion… Within the sinuous torque of its sentences, the book presents a subtle and portrait of a soul in torment. It’s a winner. -- Jude Cook * Guardian *
Football, like love, is a world of extreme highs and lows, and the protagonists in this sensitively crafted novel can only find joy when they accept who they really are – five stars. * Sun *
A powerful evocation of repressed emotion – The Remains of the Day as told by Match of the Day. -- Sam Kitchener * Telegraph *
A Natural…is not just a football novel. It’s about depression, loneliness and the truth behind masculinity. * Irish Tatler *
Excellent… Raisin excels at hidden stories… this is a richer, deeper novel that purposefully rejects the over-exposed Premier League image of the beautiful game for the grubbier hardscrabble of life at the bottom of League Two… Raisin is really good at exposing the ways men parade ideas of masculinity… a deeply absorbing novel about the coded nature of identity, whether you are a footy fan or not. -- Claire Allfree * Metro *