Far from London's crime and pollution, Hanmouth's wealthier
residents live in picturesque, heavily mortgaged cottages in the
center of a town packed with artisanal cheese shops and antiques
stores. They're reminded of the town's less desirable
outskirts--with their grim, flimsy housing stock and chain
stores--only when their neighbors have the presumption to claim
also to live in Hanmouth.
When an eight-year-old girl from the outer area goes missing,
England's eyes suddenly turn toward the sleepy town with a
curiosity as piercing and unblinking as the closed-circuit security
cameras that line Hanmouth's idyllic streets. But somehow these
cameras have missed the abduction of the girl, whose name is China.
Is her blank-eyed hairdresser mother hiding her as part of a
moneymaking hoax? Has she been abducted by one of the lurking
perverts the townspeople imagine the cameras are protecting them
from? Perhaps more cameras are needed?
As it turns out, more than one resident of Hanmouth has a secret
hidden behind closed doors. There's Sam and Harry, the cheesemonger
and aristocrat who lead the county's gay orgies. The quiet husband
of postcolonial theorist Miranda (everyone agrees she's marvelous)
keeps a male lover, while their daughter disembowels dolls she's
named Child Pornography and Slightly Jewish. Moral crusader John
Calvin's Neighborhood Watch has an unusual reason for holding its
meetings in secret. And, of course, somewhere out there is the
house where little China is hidden.
With the dark hilarity and unflinching honesty of a modern-day
"Middlemarch," "King of the Badgers "demolishes the already fragile
privacy of Hanmouth's inhabitants. These characters, exquisitely
drawn and rawly human, proclaim Philip Hensher's status as an
extraordinary chronicler of the domestic, and one of the world's
most dazzling and ambitious novelists.
General
Imprint: |
Farrar Straus Giroux
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
September 2012 |
First published: |
September 2012 |
Authors: |
Philip Hensher
|
Dimensions: |
219 x 146 x 27mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
448 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-86547-874-9 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-86547-874-0 |
Barcode: |
9780865478749 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!