God's Own Country and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £2.79

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Start reading God's Own Country on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

God's Own Country [Paperback]

Ross Raisin
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.29 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.70 (30%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want delivery by Friday, 24 May? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £4.99  
Hardcover --  
Paperback £6.29  
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

5 Feb 2009

Granta Best Young British Novelist

In Waterline, one of the most celebrated debut novels of recent years, Ross Raisin tells the story of solitary young farmer, Sam Marsdyke, and his extraordinary battle with the world.

Expelled from school and cut off from the town, mistrusted by his parents and avoided by city incomers, Marsdyke is a loner until he meets rebellious new neighbour Josephine. But what begins as a friendship and leads to thoughts of escape across the moors turns to something much, much darker with every step.

'Powerful, engrossing, extraordinary, sinister, comic. A masterful debut' Observer

'Astonishing, funny, unsettling ... An unforgettable creation [whose] literary forebears include Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield and Alex from A Clockwork Orange' The Times

'Remarkable, compelling, very funny and very disturbing . . . like no other character in contemporary fiction' Sunday Times

Ross Raisin was born in 1979 in West Yorkshire. His first novel, God's Own Country was published in 2008 and was shortlisted for nine literary awards including the Guardian First Book Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In 2009 Ross Raisin was named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. He lives in London.


Frequently Bought Together

God's Own Country + Waterline
Price For Both: £13.03

Buy the selected items together
  • Waterline £6.74

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; Paperback Edition, First Printing edition (5 Feb 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0141033525
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141033525
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.4 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 17,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

'A truly memorable and distinctive voice. Very impressive' -- Daily Mail
-- Daily Mail

'Powerful, engrossing, extraordinary, sinister, comic. A masterful debut' -- Observer -- Observer

Astonishing, funny, unsettling ... An unforgettable creation [whose] literary forebears include Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield and Alex from A Clockwork Orange -- The Times

Compelling ... What makes this novel remarkable is Raisin's creation of an entirely original voice
-- Sunday Times

One of the outstanding first novels of 2008 ... as the plot takes a sinister turn, Raisin ratchets up the suspense -- Sunday Telegraph

Ross Raisin was winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer Award 2009
-- Sunday Times Young Writer Award 2009

`Excellent, extremely entertaining, utterly compelling, wonderfully unique' -- Sunday Telegraph -- Sunday Telegraph

`Remarkable, compelling, very funny and very disturbing . . . like no other character in contemporary fiction' -- Sunday Times -- Sunday Times

Review

One of the outstanding first novels of 2008 ... as the plot takes a sinister turn, Raisin ratchets up the suspense

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A very impressive debut 22 April 2009
By Denise4891 TOP 100 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Sam Marsdyke, the anti-hero of God's Own Country, is a fascinating character - very funny and engaging at times but also sadistic and menacing. In fact, the whole book has a air of menace hanging over it, from the gothic moorland setting to the way Sam stalks his prey, both animal and human, as he spends his days roaming the bleak North Yorkshire countryside.

Sam narrates the book and his Yorkshire dialect is rich and colourful, but I didn't find it intrusive or unintelligible - I did have to look up a few words, such as "blatherskite", "powfagged" and "hubbleshoo", but I think it's easy to follow Sam`s train of thought without having to resort to a dictionary. There's also a lot of dark humour in the book, mostly at the expense of the ramblers and rich `towns' who seem to be taking over the village and turning it into a yuppie outpost.

As with all the best unreliable narrators, you're never quite sure whether to believe Sam's version of events, especially as his relationship with the neighbours' girl develops and Sam's past comes back to haunt him.

I was very impressed by this debut novel which seems to have caused a bit of a storm in the publishing world and received a lot of award nominations. Definitely an author to watch out for.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Marsdyke's Game 20 Feb 2009
Format:Paperback
Gods Own Country was recommended to me by a friend after I had read De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage. I mentioned that while despite not liking the narrator-protagonist in De Niro's Game I found myself continuing to read the book because of his incredibly moving descriptions and poetic interpretations of the world around him. And so I was recommended Gods Own Country.

It's a very different sort of book about a boy Sam Marsdyke who lives an isolated existence on a farm on the edge of the moors. His is a problem of not receiving affection and also of not having anyone to bestow it on. Instead he pours his heart in to the companionship of his dog and the landscape around him. His relationship to the countryside of northern England is so intense and his knowledge of it so intimate, he often comes across as a kind of guardian.

The current and very real gentrification of northern mill-towns and farm-towns becomes a personal attack on Sam. The beauty is that Sam's criticism is not an over-romantic lament for the loss of rural values: he mocks the other villagers heavily when they fight to save a local pub being overtaken by a big company (none of them could stand the place before). Sam doesn't seem concerned with what other people are fighting for though. His allegiance lies entirely with the landscape.

Raisin's book feels very well-researched and there are several poignant glimpses in to rural life, which demonstrate how very differently the Yorkshire coutnryside is experienced by those who visit it (like me and the other 'towns') and those who live and were raised in it (like Sam).

Finally though one can't ignore the fact that Sam Marsdyke is also a deeply disturbed and disturbing individual, and the series of events narrated in God's Own Country are anythig but Emmerdale.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great sense of place and character 10 Feb 2010
By Jaybird
Format:Paperback
Sam Marsdyke is a 19 year old farmer's son who lives an isolated life, and who becomes interested in the daughter of the middle class family that move into the next farm.

Sam is awkward and unattractive, painfully shy and deeply unlikeable. His character, as an unreliable narrator, is well drawn and wholly believable.

In fact this is a cracking book, well written, with an amazing sense of place and good tension. My one criticism is the ending, which slightly petered out. But it is a small quibble.

Recommended
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbingly gothic
God's Own Country is an extraordinary tale of delusion. Like the landscape and the characters it portrays, the narrative is menacing and uncomfortable. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Moose Papoose
1.0 out of 5 stars Really Dire
What an absoluteley dire piece of writing this is. I paid £6.99 to download it to Kindle. I can't believe this novel even found a literary agent let alone a publisher. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Diana Foster
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written and utterly compelling
This is an original, beautifully written and utterly compelling novel.The story is told first person by Sam Marsdyke, a distinctly odd and lonely 19-year-old living in rural north... Read more
Published 5 months ago by selliot
5.0 out of 5 stars Uncomfortable yet epic reading
Raisin has a way with words. I truly enjoyed this book, as a reader I went through so many emotions finding myself loving and disliking Sam the main character at the same time. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Katie Lorna
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling read
God's Own Country is a novel set in the North York Moors which is mainly an internal monologue of 19 year old Sam Marsdyke. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Bacchus
4.0 out of 5 stars 'brilliantly comic and darkly terrifying'
Sam Marsdyke is an outcast in his moorland village since an alleged assault on a girl while at school. Read more
Published 8 months ago by sally tarbox
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark humour and disturbing twists
God's Own Country is a tale about Sam Marsdyke, a 19-year-old farmer's son living in the North Yorkshire Moors. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Marie
2.0 out of 5 stars A bit rubbish, really
Oh dear, God's Own Country promises so much but delivers so little. It has won so many awards and plaudits it even needs a separate bellyband to list them all. Read more
Published 16 months ago by MisterHobgoblin
4.0 out of 5 stars There is more to come from this author
The protagonist in God's Own Country, Sam Marsdyke, is what I would describe as a `wrong `un'. Sam lives with his parents on a Yorkshire farm where he is quite the expert in most... Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Willis
4.0 out of 5 stars Chilling and amusing. Brilliant book.
There is much more to Gods Own Country than black comedy. Raisin manages an incredible feat of balancing suspense and humour and it's great. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Garth Algar
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges