A witty and entrancing story of a young woman trapped in a ramshackle English playhouse and the mysterious figure who threatens its very survival, from the author of Little
‘Extraordinary… funny, troubling, playful, magical and vastly energetic’ A.L. Kennedy
Norwich, 1901: Edith Holler spends her days among the eccentric denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should ever leave.
Fascinated by tales of the city she knows only from afar, young Edith decides to write a play of her own about Mawther Meg, a monstrous figure said to have used the blood of countless children to make the local delicacy, Beetle Spread. But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar woman named Margaret Unthank, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theatre, and her play-the one thing that’s truly hers-from the newcomer’s sinister designs.
Teeming with unforgettable characters and illuminated by Carey’s trademark illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman’s struggle to escape her family’s control and craft her own creative destiny.
Reviews
An extraordinary achievement: funny, troubling, playful, magical and vastly energetic – sometimes all at once. Edith herself is a fierce, strange creature and entirely unforgettable. Hold on to your hat – and avoid the Beetle Spread
Edward Carey excels in writing – and drawing! – peculiar characters, and the cast he creates for the macabre and fun Edith Holler is no exception
NPR
Singular – a dark delight from beginning to end
Eldritch, raucous, blistering, beautiful, totally indelible
An enjoyably uncategorisable and atmospheric book, a richly dark and idiosyncratic fairytale for grownups.
Guardian
Set in a Norwich that is at once fictional, historical and fantastical, he transports the reader into the world of brilliant 12-year-old Edith who is cursed to never leave her family’s tumbledown theatre … until fate decides otherwise. Filled with the author’s witty, curious observations and alive with his own illustrations, it’s a novel like no other.
