The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones

Jack Wolf's extraordinary 18th-century story does exactly what it says on the cover. It's a tale, in the grandest sense of the word. It's raw, at times even extreme. It explores elegantly the eternal dialogue between the head and bones. And it's quite startlingly, and beautifully, bloody ... Jack Wolf delivers his tale with passion, precision and poetry. Those of strong stomach and vivid imagination will find glittering delights in here

Lloyd Shepherd, Guardian

This moving tale of metamorphosis and blurred identity, otherness and liminality ... An extraordinarily controlled and artful book

Suzi Feay, Financial Times

This gloriously over-egged pudding of a first novel is set in 1750, and crammed with chunks of history, philosophy and folklore ... Wolf is a superb storyteller who sucks the reader into his fascinating imagination

Kate Saunders, The Times

Sadist, frequenter of brothels, afflicted by delusions and murderous intentions, Tristan Hart is among the most striking and memorable anti-heroes to have appeared in recent British fiction

Jonathan Barnes, Times Literary Supplement

It’s absolutely terrific ... it twists and it turns and is not what you think it’s going to be. It keeps changing and transforming and it’s a wonderful wonderful novel

Suzi Feay, Open Book (BBC Radio 4)

Tristan's sadistic flights of fancy make for consciously creepy reading but this knowingly warped tale about a journey into a disturbed psyche offers more than gratuitous horror. Instead, Wolf's sure hand with Hart's arcane voice and intelligent control of material including medical history and strange folklore results in a thrilling tale of transgression

Tina Jackson, Metro

This clever roller-coaster ride will challenge your reasoning, shake your senses and keep you awake at night

We Love this Book

a startlingly, subversively original writer

Gerard Woodward

There is no doubting the talent, I might even say brilliance, of the author, Jack Wolf … I simply cannot imagine whence came the idea for such a beautifully bizarre story … The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is a deeply original and startling read

SJ Bolton

the most gruesome and delicious title I have read in a tremendously long time. The perfect blend of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Sweeney Todd and Frankenstein

Charlotte Chase, Books and Berries

At the end of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, you’ll be left with a lot of questions about both the story you’ve just read and its morals. But if you’re like me, you’ll also be left with a profound desire to dive back in and do the whole thing again. It’s a rich concept, dark, twisty and fabulously well executed.

The Bookbag

Lovers of gruesome Grand Guignol will be delighted by Jack Wolf’s debut, which relocates a Jekyll-and-Hyde story of a medic with a split-personality to the 18th century... Wolf’s sure hand with Hart’s arcane voice and intelligent control of material including medical history and strange folklore results in a thrilling tale of transgression

Tina Jackson, Metro

Tristan bears a resemblance to Patrick Suskind's Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, but he is far more complicated and captivating as the protagonist. There's an earnestness that lies beneath his brutish nature, which surfaces unexpectedly and lures the reader into the murky depths of his mental anguish. Wolf's fearless debut confronts opposing forces such as good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, and sanity and madness head-on. The narrative is thick with expectation and keeps the reader on tenterhooks throughout. This clever roller-coaster ride will challenge your reasoning, shake your senses and keep you awake at night

Lana Bosovic, We Love This Book

frequently thought-provoking ... We are often unsure if something is actually happening or whether it is a figment of Tristan's mind ... considerable literary talent on display

Jonathan Wright, Herald

I enjoyed the twist on the traditional monster story, the clash of science and fairytales and how it was still possible for the two to merge and exist together during this time. Wolf is a strong writer and I’m definitely looking forward to his next book

Claire Snook, Book Munch

There is so much amazing stuff in this book. It’s written in the style of the period, which could come off a bit twee or tiresome, but is actually triumphant. I wanted to climb inside the book and have a look around … It’s a gory, violent, visceral book – there’s no concession to the squeamish. It’s also gloriously weaves the rational, scientific thoughts of the eighteenth century with the supernatural and superstitious. It wasn’t all enlightenment; there was plenty of shade too, which is captured so well here. It is crazy to think this is a first novel. Jack Wolf is a bloody good writer

And Then I Read a Book

An extravagant, eccentric and wonderfully written first novel

Saga Magazine

This tale of a conflicted medical man opens in 1750 and evokes historical fiction such as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Andrew Miller’s Ingenious Pain, and Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor. The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, Jack Wolf’s debut novel, can stand alongside these modern classics ... This is an extraordinarily controlled and artful book

Suzy Feay, Financial Times

A dark and violent debut that shows the depth of Wolf’s imagination and skill at weaving a tale

Nudge

[Tristan Hart’s] obsession is the nature of pain, and preventing it during medical procedures. His equally strong and far more unpredictable obsession is the nature of pain, and causing it

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Troubling Gothic vibes can be found in The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, which relays its schlocky tale of a lunatic 18th-century doctor obsessed with pain in some arrestingly well-turned period cadences

Tim Martin, Telegraph