Critics' Opinion:
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Published Aug 2017
176 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
The stunning new novel from the prizewinning author of The Wake.
Beast plunges you into the world of Edward Buckmaster, a man alone on an empty moor in the west of England. What he has left behind we don't yet know. What he faces is an existential battle with himself, the elements, and something he begins to see in the margins of his vision: some creature that is tracking him, the pursuit of which will become an obsession.
This short, shocking, and exhilarating novel is a vivid exploration of isolation, courage, and the search for truth that continues the story set one thousand years earlier in Paul Kingsnorth's bravura debut novel, The Wake. It extends that book's promise and confirms Kingsnorth as one of our most daring and rewarding contemporary writers.
"Starred Review. Daunting but rewarding, this dazzling work will burnish Kingsnorth's already luminous reputation." - Booklist
"Starred Review. A tour de force, reminiscent of the best of John Fowles and David Mitchell." - Kirkus
"The blurring between reality and Edward's distorted thinking is mostly effective, though the historical tangents don't quite mesh with his disordered mind. Still, the novel richly rewards those who accept its demands with an impressionistic emotional wallop." - Publishers Weekly
"This follow-up to Wake does not disappoint. Kingsnorth's writing continues to mirror his protagonists, feral and unpredictable. Readers who enjoy the darkness of Cormac McCarthy's novels will find much to admire in this trilogy." - Library Journal
"To read Beast is a joy. ... Kingsnorth's gaze is so intense it forces a similar intensity from the reader... In the end, your gaze has become as minutely focused as his hermit's. You feel alive." - The Guardian (UK)
"Slim, hypnotic, a swift descent into the solitary world of Edward Buckmaster." - New Statesman (UK)
This information about Beast 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.
Paul Kingsnorth is a former journalist and deputy editor of The Ecologist magazine who has won several awards for his poetry and essays. He is also the author of two works of nonfiction. In 2009, he cofounded the Dark Mountain Project, an international network of writers, artists, and thinkers in search of new stories for troubled times. The Wake is his first novel.
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