No Bones [Hardcover]

What Burns manages to capture, through comic exaggeration, is a real sense of how fragile the boundaries of normality are. The sectarian killings are matched by equally senseless domestic feuds and conflicts. Amelia's mother's observation that "she could see that beating the crap out of her sister was one thing; kicking an IRA man to death or nearly was another" offers a measure of just how distorted their values have become. Amelia reacts to the madness around her by internalising the violence, choosing to harm herself rather than others; first by becoming an anorexic and then an alcoholic--dealt with in a mercilessly hilarious chapter where all of the booze-addled characters continually forget what they have been talking about. The schizophrenic Vincent however, retreats further into actual madness creating a fantastical carnival city with "Come and Get Your Dead" stalls and, all too real, imaginary gunmen. It's achingly sad but as so often in this magically realised book, the mingling of tragedy and surreal comedy proves deeply affecting. Burns has produced a compassionate, bitterly acute, witty portrait of the darkest days of Northern Ireland's history. No Bones could well emerge as Belfast's Dubliners.--Travis Elborough --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

'Not only hilarious but also terribly tragic and awful and human and wonderful… No Bones is the best book I've read for ages. The world Burns creates is utterly convincing and surreal at the same time. I love the writing, the way she rolls the words around… No Bones is absolutely fantastic, and explores really exciting territory… the tone and timbre of the novel feel quite different to anything I've read before.' Julia Darling

'A chilling recognition that most survived the Troubles intact but some people will never be the same again…This account of a girl's life growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, which examines madness and sanity and questions our interpretation of both, is scary. Scarily well written, too… No Bones tears chunks out of our Peace Process comfort blankets. For it questions how a peaceful, mundane existence can be superimposed on a society inured over decades to violence.' Martina Devlin, Irish Independent

'Anna Burns recreates the dark days in Belfast beautifully and evokes the spirit of the times with compassion and understanding… No Bones tracks the tragi-comic fortunes of the Lovett family of Belfast – the violent father, the shrewdly mad mother; malevolent Mick; and dreamy Amelia, our narrator, who records their antics over the years – fights, school, kickings, and the IRA and the RUC vying for superiority. Burns writes with clarity and insight, picking up on the dark humour of the Irish psyche which is used to sustain the spirit in the most difficult of times. The place and times are familiar but the angle that the author gives is strange and different because, without the benefit of the complicated motivations behind the violence, the world seems to have just gone spontaneously and completely mad… No Bones gives an insight into a difficult and dangerous period of our history from a refreshing point of view and speaks the truth in a way that only a child can do.' Irish News

'Like a painting which, instead of graphically depicting the horror, conveys its message through distorted shapes and muted colours… [No Bones is] an accomplished first novel. Sure-footed, Burns wanders through the bomb-strewn territory she has created, at times gripping the reader. Some of the expressions she uses are beautifully simple – such as her description of a pregnant woman sitting down, "arranging her pregnancy before her"… In Amelia, Burns has created an ordinary, sensitive soul, who responds, self-destructively, to the violence around her. Only at the end does Burns allow a glimpse of hope or optimism to peek through the clouds…looking hopefully at a brighter future for all both within and outside of her novel.' Sunday Tribune