'Places Russell Hoban where he has got to be - among the greatest, timeless novelists' The Times
On his death in 2011, The Times described Russell Hoban as 'perhaps
the most consistently strange writer of the late 20th century'. He
thought and wrote in an extraordinary range of genres, becoming
first a bestselling writer of children's books, particularly the
immortal Frances stories and his first novel, The Mouse and His
Child (1968). After its publication he continued to write for
children (most notably perhaps the Captain Najork books with
Quentin Blake and The Marzipan Pig), but focussed most of his
energies on a sequence of wonderful novels, which began with The
Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz (1973) and ended with Angelica
Lost and Found (2010). He also wrote the libretto for Harrison
Birtwistle's opera The Second Mrs Kong (1994).
His novels were wildly various, but share his obsession with
objects, animals, specific works of art and pieces of music, his
love of words and sense of humour. Penguin Modern Classics
publishes his first eight novels- The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and
Jachin-Boaz, Kleinzeit, Turtle Diary, Riddley Walker, Pilgermann,
The Medusa Frequency, Fremder and Mr Rinyo-Clacton's Offer.
Russell Hoban is our Ur-novelist, a maverick voice that is like no
other.
*Sunday Telegraph*
Worth rejoicing in ... a banquet of whimsical delights. Each
Russell Hoban book is surprising ... but you also know what you're
getting, which is curiosity, wonder and a world-encompassing
empathy.
*The Guardian*
This wonderful, life-saving fantasy places Russell Hoban where he
has got to be - among the greatest, timeless novelists.
*The Times*
Crackles with witty detail, mordant intelligence and
self-deprecating irony.
*Time*
[Turtle Diary] has medicinal qualities. I only need to think about
it and I'm in a better mood.
*Max Porter*
A story about the recovery of life ... Like other cult writers -
Salinger for instance, or Vonnegut - Hoban writes about ordinary
people making life-affirming gestures in a world that threatens to
dissolve in madness.
*Newsweek*
This lovely human fable seems to me one of the best things of its
kind - a fine and touching achievement.
*John Fowles*
Tragicomic pleasure ... Metaphysical speculation undercut by dry
humour is the signature style of Russell Hoban.
*The Times*
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