WINNER OF THE SALTIRE SOCIETY FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2017 "A profoundly affecting, intellectually challenging and beautifully written fable ... a marvellous piece of work." - Stuart Kelly, Scotsman. Goblin is an oddball and an outcast. But she's also a dreamer, a bewitching raconteur, a tomboy adventurer whose spirit can never be crushed. Running feral in World War II London, Goblin witnesses the carnage of the Blitz and sees things that can never be unseen...but can be suppressed. She finds comfort in her beloved animal companions and lives on her wits with friends real and imagined, exploring her own fantastical world of Lizard Kings and Martians and joining the circus. In 2011, London is burning once again, and an elderly Goblin reluctantly returns to the city. Amidst the chaos of the riots, she must dig up the events of her childhood in search of a harrowing truth. But where lies truth after a lifetime of finding solace in an extraordinary imagination, where the distinction between illusion and reality has possibly been lost forever?
"Terrific ... moving. It is a celebration of freakery... a meditation on trauma and loss and abandonment ... which, somehow, is never bleak. Goblin brims throughout with a kind of reckless joy." Peter Ross, Guardian; "A standout debut...sophisticated." Nick Barley, Herald, Books of the Year 2017; "In my opinion the best debut fiction by a Scottish author since 2012... A profoundly affecting, intellectually challenging and beautifully written fable ... a marvellous piece of work." Stuart Kelly, Scotsman. "Enthralling... a captivating debut... Dundas presents us with an iconic protagonist: a powerful imaginative force who looks beyond the facade of 20th Century Britain and sees a fairy tale of lizard kings and dolls with shrews' heads." Alastair Mabbott, Herald. "A captivating and capricious debut that explores with a deft hand the `creature world' we all carry somewhere inside." Mary Paulson Ellis; "Confounds your expectations and enchants your sensibilities... an indelible and haunting novel." Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae; "Ever Dundas has a consummate skill with language and her words can so readily conjure feelings of both joy and sadness. It is astonishing that a novel this accomplished should be a debut." Mary Pickens, Kindle Delight blog; "A love letter to the outcasts, rebels and underdogs ... a dazzling narrative ... Unflinching, raw and diamond bright." Megan Kenny, Disclaimer Magazine
- Winner of Saltire Society First book of the Year 2017
- Short-listed for The Guardian Not the Booker Prize 2018
ISBN: 9781912235193
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
272 pages