Prodigal: Shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2019

Charles Lambert author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Gallic Books

Published:23rd Aug '18

£8.99

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

Prodigal: Shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2019 cover

• Co-op available • Finished copies in warehouse from March 2020 • Inclusion in Advance Access program • Submit for galley box and follow up with booksellers, aiming for Indie Next nominations • Media mailing of advance reading copies to a wide range of book reviewers at national and local media, including trade journals, newspapers, magazines, websites, zones, literary blogs, magazines, newspapers. • Social media campaign ‐ online giveaways, competition and e‐mail campaign • Goodreads and LibraryThing giveaways • EBook simultaneous publication and marketing, including retailer promotions • Promotion through: www.gallicbooks.com and author blog • Focus on LGBTQ bookstores and reviewers • Submit for literary awards such as the Lammys and Stonewall award • Approach Garth Greenwell, Alan Hollinghurst, Paul Lisicky and Bernardine Evaristo for endorsements • Charles Lambert available for interview

An innovative family drama exploring the nature of trust, death, and the things we do in the name of love.

Shortlisted for the Polari Prize

Charles Lambert brings us an innovative family drama exploring the nature of trust, death, and the things we do in the name of love.

'A writer who never ceases to surprise' Jenny Offill, author of Weather

Meet Jeremy, a hapless fifty-something who is scraping together a living in Paris writing soft-core pornography as 'Nathalie Cray'. 

When his all-but-estranged sister tells him their father is dying, he reluctantly travels back to his parental home in the English countryside. Confronted with a life he had always sought to escape, Jeremy begins an emotionally fraught journey into his family’s chequered past – back to the unexpected death of his mother in a provincial Greek hospital years earlier, and even further back, to the moment at which the Eldritch family fell apart.

A bold take on the queer coming-of-age story, Prodigal deftly reconsiders everything we think we know about the nature of trust, death, and what we do to each other in the name of love.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2019

Praise for Charles Lambert:

‘Charles Lambert could one day attain classic status' Maggie Gee

‘Charles Lambert is a seriously good writer’ Dame Beryl Bainbridge

'Charming, elegant and deeply poignant' TLS


Praise for The Children's Home: 

‘A beautiful and uncanny novel by a writer who never ceases to surprise’ Jenny Offill, author of Weather

'Expertly crafted' Owen King, author of Double Feature

'More delicate than Dickens and stranger than Snicket ... Sometimes heart-stopping, sometimes heart-warming, it is a provocative tale, ripe with intrigue. I loved every weird moment of it’ Nuala O’Connor, author of Miss Emily

‘This disquieting novel is surely one of the year’s most bizarre stories… Mr. Lambert’s subtle prose enhances the novel’s creepiness, as does his refusal to fully resolve or explain its many mysteries' New York Times 

‘Beautifully written and crafted, and more compelling than many thrillers’ Daily Mail

‘Compulsively readable, a one-of-a-kind literary horror story’ Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review

‘This genre-bending debut is by turns dread-inducing and heartwarming, a masterful exploration of whether innocence can truly sprout from ignorance….a magical, mesmerizing tale about the courage it takes to confront the unknown’ Booklist, STARRED review

'Mesmerizing….The folkloric undertone and stylish prose, which is replete with gruesome and wondrous images, keep the reader turning the pages' Publishers Weekly

'This genre-bending horror story is sure to haunt you in all the best ways' Bustle 'Best Books of the Month'

‘Charles Lambert’s novel is entirely original … highly compelling and invigorating writing’ Lonesome Reader

‘Charles Lambert has crafted an exquisitely strange and deliciously dark offering … the narrative itself will haunt his readers well beyond the margins of its pages’ High Voltage Magazine 

‘A haunting Gothic in the vein of Shirley Jackson, steeped with the mystery and imagination of Neil Gaiman’s fairy tales. Lambert’s prose is beautiful and his tale is mesmerizing’ Cemetery Dance Online

The Children’s Home is the best kind of ghost story – one that scares, one that surprises … and one that you simply can’t stop reading’ Maine Edge 

‘… definitely recommend this if you’re in the mood for something a little creepy’ Bored to Death Book Club

The Children’s Home may well be the most surprising, thought provoking and also baffling book I’ve ever read’ Bailieborough Library Reading Group

‘Lambert is a brilliant writer, and his absorbing new novel, The Children’s Home, is the best literary fiction I have read in some time’ Seattle Book Mama

‘A powerful construction of creeping dread which skilfully keeps the reader off-balance at every turn’ The Star 

ISBN: 9781910709498

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

392 pages