Dreams of Leaving

(Paperback)

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Description

New Egypt is a village somewhere in the South of England. A village that nobody has ever left. Peach, the sadistic chief of police, makes sure of that. Then, one misty morning, a young couple secretly set their baby son Moses afloat on the river, in a basket made of rushes. Years later, Moses is living above a nightclub, mixing with drug-dealers, thieves and topless waitresses. He knows nothing about his past - but it is catching up with him nevertheless, and it threatens to put his life in danger. Terror, magic and farce all have a part to play as the worlds of Peach and Moses slowly converge.

Reviews

One of the most haunting, resonant and clever parables about England you'll ever read * Guardian *
Imagine the quintessential English village filmed by Bunuel and written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez * New York Times Book Review *
Thomson chillingly fuses the real and the unreal with terrifying grace and infinite imagination. It's hard to believe this sophisticated, edgy novel is his first * Mail on Sunday *
When someone writes as well as Thomson does, it makes you wonder why other people bother * New Statesman *

Author Bio

RUPERT THOMSON is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels, of which Air and Fire and The Insult were shortlisted for the Writer's Guild Fiction Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize respectively. His most recent novel, Death of a Murderer, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop was published in 2009.