The Land of Decoration
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  • Published: 1 March 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446477236
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304
Categories:

The Land of Decoration

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Mar 2012
Audiobook
1 Mar 2012
Paperback
16 Jan 2013
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Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Betty Trask Prize, The Land of Decoration is blissfully inventive, brilliantly written, with a huge heart, and a tense, pulsing plot - it introduces a young heroine who will change the way you see the world.

'An extraordinary and peculiarly haunting novel' Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand


A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK

My name is Judith McPherson. I am ten years old. On Monday a miracle happened.

Judith doesn’t have much. The house she shares with her devoutly religious father is full of dusty relics, reminders of the mother Judith never knew. Bullied at school, she finds comfort in creating a miniature world in her bedroom – a world of wonder she calls The Land of Decoration. Perhaps, she thinks, if she makes it snow in The Land of Decoration there will be no school on Monday.

Sure enough, when Judith opens her curtains the next day, the world beyond her window has turned white.

And that's when her troubles begin.
  • Published: 1 March 2012
  • ISBN: 9781446477236
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304
Categories:

About the author

Grace McCleen

Grace McCleen lives in London.

Praise for The Land of Decoration

A distinctive debut that pulls off the use of a child narrator in delightful style

We Love This Book

A gripping and mesmerizing debut of an unforgettable ten-year-old heroine and her battle with good and evil… A harrowing and powerful story about isolation and belonging

My Weekly

A stand-out debut from a new talent ... Inventive and unforgettable

Good Housekeeping

A thrilling page-turner

Alexander Larman, Spectator

A touching, delicate book, it's hitting the shelves with high hopes...On March 1, head out and buy Grace McCleen's book

Louis Wise, Sunday Times

A tremendously affecting novel, skillfully and arrestingly written, and one that packs a big emotional punch

Sunday Times

Affecting and brilliantly written…a truly awe-inspiring debut

Stylist

An extraordinary and peculiarly haunting novel

Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand

An incredibly emotional read

Grazia

An original new voice... Haunting and absorbing, this is a joy to read

Jackie Carrier, Suffolk Free Press

Both sinister and sharply intriguing, with a completely convincing eleven-year-old narrator caught in fundamentalism, school persecution and the edge of the miraculous

A.S. Byatt, Guardian, Books of the Year

Bursting with tension and tenderness, this novel is a small miracle in itself

Helen Brown, Daily Mail

Enchanting and compellingly dark... This is an intensely personal story, but told with a lightness of touch and air of magic

Nigella Lawson, Mail on Sunday Books of the Year

Exquisitely written and imagined

Woman & Home

Extraordinary

Emma Donoghue, author of Room

Grace McCleen's writing is deep, fantastical and powerful... She has been able to observe a fascinating world with generosity, wonder and spirit. A wonderful gem of a debut

Viv Groskop, Independent on Sunday

Shimmers with little miracles.

Peggy Hughes, Scotland on Sunday

Surprising, affecting, thoughtful and complex, McCleen's novel grows in power the more time you spend with it

Nicola Barr, Observer

This is a novel that strikes both horror and joy in the reader, the first-person narration deftly articulating Judith's escalating confusion and fear ... A talent to watch

Lucy Scholes, The Sunday Times

This is a promisingly bold book and McCleen is a talent to watch

Lucy Scholes, Sunday Times

Touching and funny… a compelling and wholly original debut.

Marie Claire