The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones

(Paperback)

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Description

Explosive, transgressive, ambitious, wildly imaginative debut from a major new writer The year is 1750. Meet Tristan Hart, precociously talented student of medicine. His obsession is the nature of pain and preventing. He is on a quest to cut through superstition with the brilliant blade of science. Meet Tristan Hart, madman and deviant. His obsession is the nature of pain, and causing it. He is on a quest to arouse the perfect scream and slay the daemon Raw Head who torments his days and nights. Troubled visionary, twisted genius, loving sadist. What is real and what imagined in Tristan Hart's brutal, beautiful, complex world

Reviews

Jack Wolf's extraordinary 18th-century story does exactly what it says on the cover. It's a tale, in the grandest sense of the word. It's raw, at times even extreme. It explores elegantly the eternal dialogue between the head and bones. And it's quite startlingly, and beautifully, bloody ... Jack Wolf delivers his tale with passion, precision and poetry. Those of strong stomach and vivid imagination will find glittering delights in here -- Lloyd Shepherd * Guardian *
This gloriously over-egged pudding of a first novel is set in 1750, and crammed with chunks of history, philosophy and folklore ... Wolf is a superb storyteller who sucks the reader into his fascinating imagination -- Kate Saunders * The Times *
This moving tale of metamorphosis and blurred identity, otherness and liminality ... An extraordinarily controlled and artful book -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times *
Sadist, frequenter of brothels, afflicted by delusions and murderous intentions, Tristan Hart is among the most striking and memorable anti-heroes to have appeared in recent British fiction -- Jonathan Barnes * Times Literary Supplement *
This tale of a conflicted medical man opens in 1750 and evokes historical fiction such as Susanna Clarkes Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Andrew Millers Ingenious Pain, and Peter Ackroyds Hawksmoor. The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, Jack Wolfs debut novel, can stand alongside these modern classics ... This is an extraordinarily controlled and artful book -- Suzy Feay * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Jack Wolf was born in Bath, and has spent most of his life in rural Somerset. He wanted to be a singer until his interests in faerie tales and in social history led to a writing career. The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is his first novel. He is currently studying for a PhD and working on his second novel.