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Tom Cox

Villager Hardcover – 28 April 2022

by Tom Cox (Author)

93 ratings

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There’s so much to know. It will never end, I suspect, even when it does. So much in all these lives, so many stories, even in this small place.

Villages are full of tales: some are forgotten while others become a part of local folklore. But the fortunes of one West Country village are watched over and irreversibly etched into its history as an omniscient, somewhat crabby, presence keeps track of village life.<br />

In the late sixties a Californian musician blows through Underhill where he writes a set of haunting folk songs that will earn him a group of obsessive fans and a cult following. Two decades later, a couple of teenagers disturb a body on the local golf course. In 2019, a pair of lodgers discover a one-eyed rag doll hidden in the walls of their crumbling and neglected home. Connections are forged and broken across generations, but only the landscape itself can link them together. A landscape threatened by property development and superfast train corridors and speckled by the pylons whose feet have been buried across the moor.

Tom Cox’s masterful debut novel synthesises his passion for music, nature and folklore into a psychedelic and enthralling exploration of village life and the countryside that sustains it.

Print length

448 pages
Print length

448 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Unbound
Publication date

28 April 2022
Dimensions

22.4 x 3.5 x 14.5 cm
ISBN-10

1800181345
ISBN-13

978-1800181342
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From the Publisher

Product description

Review

‘The true appeal of the story is its interweaving of themes and narratives: local personalities, the impact of pylons, the interconnection between past and present, and the relationship between people and the land that, literally, has a voice in the narrative. Villager is one of the must-read novels of 2022’ Matthew d’Ancona, Tortoise Media
'An exquisitely detailed, many-voiced tale of people, place and folklore ... a communication with lost voices rich in wonder, longing and exalted psychedelic flight' Mojo
‘I was swept along in this novel’s current, watching a landscape unfold to reveal the lives hidden in its crevices. A joyous tumble of animism, love, music and mystery that beautifully balances awe and irreverence: Villager left me with a sense of an ancient longing that is hard to shake off’ Zoe Gilbert, author of Folk
'I gallumphed through the pages of Villager as though it was on fire ... Funny, thought-provoking and astoundingly clever ... What will I be able to read after Villager? I'll just read it again, I guess. And again. Just cancel all other books’ Adele Nozedar, author of The Hedgerow Handbook
'A relatable and compelling read ... Anyone would love it' Dorian Cope
'Tom’s newest book, his debut novel Villager, takes the reader on his strangest and most gloriously idiosyncratic trip yet, on an excursion through interconnected tales that draw the reader off the map and deeply into the story of Underhill’ Writing Magazine
'One chapter unfolds as dialogue with a search engine; others are narrated by the moor itself. A rich potpourri that keeps us busy enough not to worry about what it adds up to’ Anthony Cummins,Mail on Sunday
’This is ideal summer holiday reading - to be relished piecemeal or devoured in one fell swoop, as I did’ BBC Countryfile'Villager is a marvellously inventive and imaginative fiction. A tremendous novel' William Boyd
'Tom Cox’s books are hedgerows. All about the journey and not the destination. They delicately link one stunning viewpoint to another whilst providing nourishment for the heart and soul, a safe haven for a host of endangered fantasies, musings and stories' Alice Lowe
‘Villager is delightfully convoluted, otherworldly and captivating, immersing the reader in the contours and personality of the landscape and those who inhabit it’ Mark Diacono
'Villager rescues its reader from the complacency with which we experience the everyday. The book is as rich as the vast monistic philosophy that underpins it - a synthesis of folklore, nature and the curious psychedelia in ordinary experience that points to the truths in which we find meaning. Tom Cox is a master of effortless, fluid storytelling and Villager is alive with both gnawing edge and Cox's signature flavour of clipped, pragmatic humour which is perfectly juxtaposed with the unbounded imagination of Villager's world. It is a thrilling, comforting and entirely unique read, challenging the reader's sense of both what is familiar and what is alien. It’s tender and dark and strangely comforting. I loved it' Laura Kennedy, Irish Times/Sunday Times
‘An extraordinary book … [Tom Cox] is policing that interesting boundary between what is folklore, what is actual history, and what is natural history’ John Mitchinson, Backlisted podcast
‘Tom is such an original mind, and brave in his approach to writing, so it's no surprise at all that he has written a novel that surprises, delights and fizzes with imagination’ Sathnam Sanghera
‘A glorious ramble … This is an epic, oddball soap opera soundtracked by folk music, birdsong and the rattle of hedgerows against car windows … Its psychedelic tangle suggests that our short lives can nourish the landscape, if we watch our step’ Guardian

About the Author

Tom Cox lives in Devon. He is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling The Good, The Bad and The Furry and the William Hill Sports Book longlisted Bring Me the Head of Sergio Garcia. 21st-Century Yokel was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, and the titular story of Help the Witch won a Shirley Jackson Award. @cox_tom

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Unbound (28 April 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1800181345
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1800181342
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.4 x 3.5 x 14.5 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 26,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 4,455 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- 6,684 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews:
93 ratings

About the author

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Tom Cox

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Tom Cox is the author of, among others, the Sunday Times bestselling The Good, The Bad and The Furry and the Wainwright Prize longlisted 21st-Century Yokel. Help the Witch, his first collection of short stories, was published in 2018 and won a Shirley Jackson award.

"21st-Century Yokel is simultaneously the funniest and saddest book about the modern countryside that I know. But no surprise there, because Tom Cox is THE soulman of British literature." - John Lewis-Stempel, author of The Running Hare

"Tom Cox is a very funny writer." - Kate Atkinson

"Made me laugh out loud." - David Sedaris

"Tom Cox writes brilliantly about golf." William Boyd

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

93 global ratings

5 star		58%
4 star		26%
3 star		11%
2 star		4%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Mimosa

A Verdant Gem

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 May 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a green gift of a book. I love Cox’s nature writing in particular and struggle with his short stories because he is a writer of depth and breadth and short stories don’t do that justice. I was apprehensive approaching this book for that reason. He has the patience and the talent for the long haul and this book shows that in the beautifully written descriptions, particularly of Dartmoor. I felt immersed in the greenness of Dartmoor it reminded me of a time I was invited by a friend to a Wiccan ceremony, I can’t even remember which one, but a summer one, I left that night feeling connected to time out of ages as if it was all one and it came home with me, that deep connection. This is the feeling I was left with after reading this book. This book that deepened with every successive chapter. If I have a reservation it’s that the beginning was thinner, it would have been nice to have the same depth rewritten at the start, likewise the narrative voice. In the early chapters it bothered me inordinately that I didn’t know who was speaking and that, in part, distracted me from the words themselves. I also feared being excluded from the book by the musical references as I’m not big on music except radio 3 in the car. However, I am big on creativity and that is essentially what the music in this represents, how we and the world create and are changed by what we do, the almost painful reflections on why some of us ‘make it’ and others do not and does that make the creating any the less valid? Thoughts I’ve been pondering over for a very long time and given voice to here. Thanks to Tom Cox for this very thought provoking and feeling book.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Brian E. Downes

Eco Fantasy?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 5 June 2022

Verified Purchase

Not read this author before, probably will not dip into his other works. Well worked, but a bit off the wall.
Not mainstream, probably goes down well with a niche following.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Lived the surrealism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 June 2022

Verified Purchase

This book is unlike Tom Cox's previous books and no less brilliant. I love the shifts in time, but never in place, and between characters, human and otherwise. His sense of humour always hits the spot.

Helpful

Francis Frost

One to read again soon

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 May 2022

Verified Purchase

Excellent book, often extremely funny. I particularly enjoy the juxtaposition of the mundane and the magic. Particularly loved the online village bulletin board part.. I'll read it again in a couple of months. Keep writing, Tom, your books are unique.

Helpful

Crispin Pemberton

Weird and not very wonderful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 July 2022

Verified Purchase

Really tried to get into this book but struggled with the disjointed plotting and lack of a coherent theme. Amusing in places which kept me engaged longer than it should. Just wanted my life back eventually and gave up on it half way through. Probably a fine work but it didn't work for me.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

janice house

Brilliant!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 24 May 2022

Verified Purchase

Brilliant, funny almost ingenious read!!!waiting for the next one@!!!@

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Dave S

Can’t get into this

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 5 June 2022

Verified Purchase

I have read about just over 100 pages and gives up on this book, I cannot make any sense of it, but that might just be me.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kirsty Syder

Excellent book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 December 2022

A lovely evocation of a place, and how landscape and nature affects those who live in it. Interconnected stories with characters who feel real, with all the flaws and confused motivations of humanity. One to return to again and again.

One person found this helpful

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Tom Cox

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