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The Loney

On sale

12th September 2024

Price: £9.99

Costa First Novel Award, 2016

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781473619852

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The Loney is not just good, it’s great. It’s an amazing piece of fiction’ Stephen King

Easter 1976. Two teenage brothers, one mute, the other his lifelong protector, set off on a retreat with their parents and others from their church to a Catholic shrine on a wild, ever-changing stretch of Lancashire coastline known as the Loney. Led by new incumbent Father Bernard, the pilgrims dutifully observe the traditions leading up to the Resurrection, but the boys learn that there is a much older, darker power to be found in the landscape itself, one which is being tapped by strange rituals on the tidal island of Coldbarrow.

Many years later, a child’s body is discovered, and the two brothers are forced to confront the horrors of the past. The Loney always gives up its secrets, in the end.

WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016

‘This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill’ Observer

‘A masterful excursion into terror’ The Sunday Times

Reviews

Stephen King
An amazing piece of fiction
Sunday Times
A masterful excursion into terror
Metro
An unforgettable addition to the ranks of the best British horror
Daily Mail
An eerie, disturbing read that doesn't let up until its surprise ending
Observer
This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill
Daily Express
A haunting and ambiguous novel that will keep you up at night
Guardian
Here is the masterpiece by which Hurley must enter the Guild of the Gothic: it pleases me to think of his name written on some parchment scroll, alongside those of Walpole, Du Maurier, Maturin and Jackson
Daily Telegraph
An extraordinarily haunted and haunting novel
New Statesman
A tale of suspense that sucks you in and pulls you under. As yarns go, it rips
Financial Times
A masterclass in spinning out tension
The Times, Books of the Year
Written with the skill of a poet
Sunday Express summer reads
A haunting exploration of religion, faith and family. Hurley's evocation of the landscape is bleak and beautiful, while his portrayal of a family slowly imploding is both perceptive and compelling
Stephen King
An amazing piece of fiction
Sunday Times
A masterful excursion into terror
Metro
An unforgettable addition to the ranks of the best British horror
Daily Mail
An eerie, disturbing read that doesn't let up until its surprise ending
Observer
This is a novel of the unsaid, the implied, the barely grasped or understood, crammed with dark holes and blurry spaces that your imagination feels compelled to fill
Daily Express
A haunting and ambiguous novel that will keep you up at night
Guardian
Here is the masterpiece by which Hurley must enter the Guild of the Gothic: it pleases me to think of his name written on some parchment scroll, alongside those of Walpole, Du Maurier, Maturin and Jackson
Daily Telegraph
An extraordinarily haunted and haunting novel
New Statesman
A tale of suspense that sucks you in and pulls you under. As yarns go, it rips
Financial Times
A masterclass in spinning out tension
The Times, Books of the Year
Written with the skill of a poet
Sunday Express summer reads
A haunting exploration of religion, faith and family. Hurley's evocation of the landscape is bleak and beautiful, while his portrayal of a family slowly imploding is both perceptive and compelling

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