- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Viking; 1st Edition edition (6 Mar 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670917346
- ISBN-13: 978-0670917341
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 214,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
God's Own Country
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More About the Author
Product Description
Colm Tόibín
'A compelling, disturbing and often very funny novel'
J.M. Coetzee
Chilling in its effect and convincing in its execution
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Ramblers. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Ramblers. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
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.
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.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
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.
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.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The praise heaped on this from critics seems distinctly out of proportion to its merits as a novel.
My opinion has probably been clouded as I read it directly after completing "Child of God" by Cormac McCarthy - a considerably better/darker version of Raisin's loner on the edge of town/society scenario - but I also encountered problems with Sam as a character.
Reading the novel I couldn't help but get the impression Sam was either autistic or mentally slow and this overpowered any sense of brutality in his character. Maybe I interpreted it wrong but he seems completely oblivious to the consequences of his actions and his interpretation of events is more misplaced or confused than malevolent. As the title to this review suggests, to my mind Sam Marsdyke is infinitely more Sam Dingle from Emmerdale than Son of Sam.
It's not without its merits as a story - and the writing is very good - but it's just it doesn't bare favorable comparison to "Child of God" or indeed "The Wasp Factory" as has been alluded to in some of the hardback reviews.
My opinion has probably been clouded as I read it directly after completing "Child of God" by Cormac McCarthy - a considerably better/darker version of Raisin's loner on the edge of town/society scenario - but I also encountered problems with Sam as a character.
Reading the novel I couldn't help but get the impression Sam was either autistic or mentally slow and this overpowered any sense of brutality in his character. Maybe I interpreted it wrong but he seems completely oblivious to the consequences of his actions and his interpretation of events is more misplaced or confused than malevolent. As the title to this review suggests, to my mind Sam Marsdyke is infinitely more Sam Dingle from Emmerdale than Son of Sam.
It's not without its merits as a story - and the writing is very good - but it's just it doesn't bare favorable comparison to "Child of God" or indeed "The Wasp Factory" as has been alluded to in some of the hardback reviews.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oh dear, not again...
After saying I rarely give low star reviews, this is my third in row. Am I just choosing my books badly at the moment? It's the kind of territory I tend to like. Read more
Published 16 days ago by Maddy Reading
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 4 months ago by MisterHobgoblin
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 6 months ago by J. Willis
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 8 months ago by Garth Algar
Good first novel
A interesting study of a tortured mind. The main character generates, by turns, sympathy and revulsion. Read more
Published 11 months ago by David Hoggard
Wow
Wow...what an interesting book. The whole story is written in Yorkshire dialect. I have lived in Yorkshire, England for 40 years (just round the corner from Arnold Kellet, the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Freckles
Very, very well written but also very disturbing...
Echoing other reviews really, I could not put this book down and the ending was totally unexpected to me. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Elizabeth
A writer of real talent, but this just does not quite work
I enjoyed ther writing, more than the story. Raisin has a really fine style, but somehow the story matter does not quite come together. Read more
Published 11 months ago by R. Newton
Bleak but gripping
I hadn't heard any of the hype before I read this, I don't think I even read the back cover so had no expectations of this book. I really enjoyed it. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs Badcrumble
powerfully evokes the Yorkshire moors
This absorbing book creates powerful, abiding images of the Moors, Sam's passion for them and the wild stark comfort he finds on his solitary walks. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jane
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