Elmet

Critics Review

• A quiet explosion of a book, exquisite and unforgettable

  The Economist

• Elmet is in so many ways a wonder to behold. It is also this year’s David among the predictable Goliaths on the Booker list. How thrilling if David were to win against them

  Evening Standard

• Exceptional in every way

  Mail on Sunday

• A work of troubling beauty . . . Brutal, bleak, ethereal

  New Statesman

• Mozley is a gifted writer . . . Pastoral idyll, political exposé, cosy family saga and horror tale, it reads like a traditional children’s story that turns into a gangster film: Hansel and Gretel meets The Godfather

  Sunday Times

• An impressive slice of contemporary noir steeped in Yorkshire legend . . . Elmet possesses a rich and unfussy lyricism

  Guardian

• A rare find of a book and a truly startling debut . . . a fascinating and unique tale shot through with gothic elements of Yorkshire folklore and fable. A poignant and powerful story, relevant now more than ever in a time when many in the countryside feel disenfranchised and unheard, Elmet packs a punch

  Stylist, Book Wars

• Rhythmic and lilting . . . a rich and earthy tale

  Financial Times

• At its best, it reminds you of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

  Metro

• A cleverly constructed rural Gothic fable written in palatably simple prose . . . Elmet is a marvellous achievement

  TLS

• A novel that straddles the centuries, simultaneously modern and backward-looking, Hardeyesque yet fully engaged with contemporary politics

  Literary Review

• With subtle colloquial dialogue and vibrant descriptive passages, this is an evocative read, which deserves attention

  Sunday Independent

• Spellbinding . . . What is so memorable is the sense of utter desolation of this family. They are as outside our world as Lear and Edgar on the heath

  The Spectator, Books of the Year

• An amazingly brilliant debut novel . . . and a work of extraordinary Yorkshire grit . . . exquisite

  Guardian, Books of the Year

• Lyrical and mythic . . . a beguiling patchwork of influences held together by Mozley’s distinct voice

  New York Times

• A magical debut novel . . . this dazzling debut feels steeped in a more primitive, violent past . . . in seductively poetic prose, the book shines a light on the toll of power wielded cruelly, as well as on a countering force: the extraordinary sustenance family devotion can provide

  People Magazine, Book of the Week

• Fiona Mozley’s remarkable debut looks at life on the margins of society . . . A darkly evocative tale that lingers in one’s mind

  Financial Times, Books of the Year

• A cracking read. Darkly lyrical and full of violence, Mozley’s Yorkshire owes something to Ted Hughes, something to older, deeper folk tales and fables. She’s a name to watch

  Observer, Books of the Year

• The breakout debut was the surprise dark horse on the Man Booker shortlist this year. A restless, fiercely felt novel about the deep bonds within an outlaw family in rural Yorkshire, it combines a demanding lyrical intensity with passages of astonishing violence and marks out Mozley, not yet 30, as a writer of great promise

  Metro, Books of the Year

• Fiona Mozley might have been the surprise debut author on last year’s Man Booker prize shortlist , but her story of a bare-knuckle fighter who retreats to a Yorkshire copse with his children is deserving of the attention it received. Elmet taps into an almost mythological world where “Daddy” shapes his children to be “more like an army than a family”. Its politics are fascinating too – there’s much to chew on here about how we define the disenfranchised

  Observer

• A modern West Riding Western with the most memorable climax since Golgotha. Haunting, page-turning with characters that burst on to the page

  FT, Summer Reads