Himself

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2016 1950. A teenage girl is brutally murdered in a forest. But, somehow, her baby survives. 1976. A mysterious and charming young man returns to the remote coastal village of Mulderrig, seeking answers about the mother who, it was said, had abandoned him on the steps of a Dublin orphanage. With the help of its oldest and most eccentric inhabitant, he will force the village to give up its ghosts. Nothing, not even the dead, can stay buried forever.

Reviews of Himself

Kidd's brilliantly bold debut mixes up murder and mayhem with the eerily supernatural. It's a tender, violent and funny story told in prose that is lyrical, lush and hugely imaginative. Utterly unputdownable * Sunday Express * Diabolical deeds, ferociously kept secrets, black humour and magical realism abound in Jess Kidd's richly textured, thronging debut … Kidd has imagination to die for and a real command of plot and character * Guardian * A genuinely intriguing mystery, with moments of real tenderness … otherworldly and wonderfully original * Stylist * Very funny, very profound, very moving … One of the finest books of the year — SIMON MAYO * BBC Radio 2 Book Club * An intriguing story of family secrets and haunting — ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY, author of The Loney Wonderfully entertaining … the ghosts are not the main attraction in this delightful first novel; it is also a detective story, in which Mahony and Mrs C make an unlikely Holmes and Watson * The Times * This striking literary debut is a darkly comic tale of murder, intrigue, haunting and illegitimacy … wickedly funny * Daily Express * I love this book. It's a magic realist murder mystery set in rural Ireland, in which the dead play as important a part as the living. It's one of those books that has you smiling as you read, and that you plan to read again very soon. — LOUIS DE BERNIERES, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin In lyrical prose that is by turns touchingly tender and violent, Kidd's brilliantly bold debut mixes murder and mayhem with the eerily supernatural, and throws in a dash of laugh-out-loud humour for good measure * Psychologies * Himself is a sort of Under Milk Wood meets The Third Policeman meets Agatha Christie. It's a highly unusual tale set in a highly unusual Irish village full of dark secrets and engaging characters (not all of them still alive). Lushly imagined, delightfully original and very, very funny, it hurtles along from the very first page. A hugely enjoyable read. I can't wait for more from Jess Kidd — ML STEDMAN, author of The Light Between Oceans