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Atmospheric, uplifting and deeply moving debut novel, Sketcher is a touching family tale set deep in the Louisiana swamplands.
Nine-year-old "Skid" Beaumont's family is stuck in the mud. Following his father's decision to relocate and build a new home, based on a drunken vision that New Orleans would rapidly expand eastwards into the wetlands as a result of the Seventies' oil boom, Skid and his brothers grow up in a swampy area of Louisiana. But the constructions stop short, the dream fizzles out, and the Beaumonts find themselves sinking in a soggy corner of 1980s Cold War America. As things on the home front get more complicated, Skid learns of his mother's alleged magic powers and vaguely remembers some eerie stories surrounding his elder brother Frico. These, as well as early events that Skid saw with his own eyes, convince him that Frico has a gift to fix things by simply sketching them. For the next few years, Skid's self-appointed mission to convince his brother to join him in his lofty plan to change their family's luck and the world they live in will lead to even more mystery and high drama in the swamp.
A wonderfully joyous, eccentric first novel." - The Times (UK)
"A witty Mark Twain-like diversion that tells of superstition and mojo-conjuring among the swamp folk of the Bayou during the Reaganite 1980s." - The Spectator (UK)
"Part rambunctious tale of adolescence and part voodoo ghost story - a richly textured evocation of life in the Bayou, lush with fruitful descriptions and the tall tales of folklore." - The Literary Review (UK)
"If the broken parts of life cannot always be mended, most of it is still more than good enough, in these rollicking chronicles from the sticky side of Louisiana." - The Independent (UK)
"A funny, sad, atmospheric novel... Captivating and characterful." - The Sunday Times (UK)
"Funny, heartfelt and beguiling debut... The core strength of Sketcher is Skid's first-person account, told in colloquial Louisiana dialect. He is a funny and sharp observer, a bit of a wise-arse - part Scout Finch, part Huck Finn, part Bart Simpson - yet capable of stunning lyricism." - The Bookseller (UK)
This information about Sketcher was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Roland Watson-Grant, a former teacher of English, studied Literature at the University of the West Indies. He now works in advertising as Creative Director. Sketcher is his first novel.
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