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The Wilderness
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409075196
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

The Wilderness

Formats & editions
Paperback
1 Apr 2010
EBook
1 Sept 2010
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An extraordinary debut novel by a young writer of remarkable gifts

FROM THE AUTHOR OF 2024 BOOKER PRIZE WINNING ORBITAL

It's Jake's birthday. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer's.

As the disease takes hold of him, the key events of his life shift, and what until recently seemed solid fact melts into surreal imaginings. Is his daughter alive or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? There was a cherry tree once, and a yellow dress, but what do they mean? Is there anything he'll be able to salvage from the wreckage?

‘Deeply original and captivating… [a novel] so full of urgent life that it rouses even as it terrifies’ OLIVIA LAING, OBSERVER

‘Brilliant… An extraordinary dramatization of a mind in the process of disintegration’ THE TIMES
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409075196
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336
Categories:

About the author

Samantha Harvey

Samantha Harvey is the author of The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind. She appeared on the longlists for the Bailey’s Prize and the Man Booker, and the shortlists of the James Tait Black Award, the Orange Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness won the Betty Trask Award in 2009. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

portrait photo of Samantha Harvey

Also by Samantha Harvey

Orbital
The Shapeless Unease
The Western Wind
Dear Thief
All is Song
See all

Praise for The Wilderness

A treat for literature lovers who appreciate complexity in their novels and aren't afraid to deal with tough topics

Library Journal

Touches a resounding chord of melancholy. The author, whose debut this is, is very talented

Evening Standard

An extraordinary dramatisation of a mind in the process of disintegration ... Brilliant - read it now, before it scoops up all the prizes

The Times

Harvey uses her precise and unostentatious style to full effect

Alexander Starritt, Times Literary Supplement

a forensic examination of loss and misunderstanding, a paean to the vital force of stories, and an incredibly moving look at a sword of Damocles that hangs over us all

Tom Webber, Observer

A brave, intelligent book

Emma Lee-Potter, Daily Express

This is a finely written ode to memory, identity and love

Financial Times

Brave and intelligent...a mesmerising work

Independent

A stunning composition of human fragility and intensity

Guardian

The imagined experience of dementia is intricately, cleverly woven

Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times