Nina X: Winner of the 2019 Saltire Society Award for Fiction

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Description

NINA X is loosely inspired by the real case of a tiny Maoist cult in London whose leader kept five women trapped for more than twenty years.

Nina X has no books, no toys and no privacy. She has nothing that might be described as love. Her closest emotional connection is with the birds she sees outside her bedroom window, when she is daring enough to remove the plasterboard that covers it. She has never been outside her small south London house. She has never met another child. She has no mother and no father; she has a Leader (a man), and she has three female comrades. The all-powerful Leader has named her The Project; she is being raised in total ideological purity, entirely separated from the false gods of capitalism and the cult of the self. He has her record everything in her journal, to track her thoughts; he makes her revise the entries obsessively, until they fit with his narrative. Her words are erased, over and over again.

Reviews

Compelling. Chilling -- Lionel Shriver
Sensational. Like nothing I've ever read. A tour de force -- Ian Rankin
I think it's brilliant. I really enjoyed it. I found it very funny and often moving -- Alex Preston * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *
I think it's such an intellectually fair book. Refreshingly honest . . . moving. I'm very impressed -- John Tusa * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *
Fascinating . . . a very high concept book -- Oliver Jones * BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review *
Convincing, moving and successful. It's also extremely funny * Observer *
[An] amazing book. There are few writers left in Britain who have his ambition, vision and empathy. Nina is marvellous creation and this is an important novel -- Irvine Welsh
A parable for our times. His most brutal and innovative novel . . . his best to date. Challenging, horrific and visceral. Most importantly, apart from being humane and experimental, it is also deeply, deeply serious . . . Judges of Prizes take note -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman *
Nina X is intelligent and demanding: a study of a mind-bending cult and the difficulty a survivor has in adjusting to the world of normality . . . you're not likely to forget it * Scotsman *

Author Bio

Ewan Morrison is the author of the award-winning novels Tales from the Mall and Close Your Eyes; the novels Menage, Distance and Swung; and the short story collection The Last Book You Read. Ewan was awarded the Glenfiddich Writer of the Year Award and the SMIT novel of the year 2012/2013.