<p>Weaving together prose and poetry, myth and history, the past, present and future, it’s a work of extraordinary ambition, brilliantly realised</p>
OBSERVER
<p>A dark-dazzling archive of enchantments, pursuit, and desire</p>
- ELEY WILLIAMS,
Inventive and subversive ... A mesmerising journey down the byways of English folklore
MAIL ON SUNDAY
<p>Verbally dextrous, inventive, and hugely entertaining</p>
THE TIMES
<p>This is the most adventurous, stylistically magnificent thing I’ve read for years. Nobody does fantasy like Zoe Gilbert</p>
- NATASHA PULLEY,
<p><i>Mischief Acts</i> is a deeply lyrical, century-spanning polyphony of voices; a dazzling new take on an ancient myth, reminding us of the wildness within. I adored it</p>
- KERRY ANDREW,
<p>Mischief Acts is brimming with magic - full of wild hunts, river spirits and revelry. The story of Herne, like the forest itself, transforms, entangles and enchants</p>
- LUCY WOOD,
<p>Superb. A work of shimmering allure. By turns beguiling and mercurial, Gilbert takes British folklore to new heights</p>
- IRENOSEN OKOJIE,
<b>Praise for Folk:</b> 'An extraordinary debut novel … It feels both ancient – drawing on deep seams of myth and folklore – and strikingly contemporary, pushing at the edges of what we mean when we call a book a novel. In Folk, Zoe Gilbert has made a thing of strange and enduring beauty
- ALEX PRESTON, FINANCIAL TIMES
<i>Folk </i>is a special book: immersive and dripping with life, each story a spell, an allegory, a dark, smoky poem divined from the landscape of our ancient kingdom … It reads like a dream that, once visited, is difficult to leave behind
- BEN MYERS, GUARDIAN
Genuinely original, disturbing, beautiful and gripping ... <i>Folk </i>can be read as a map of the British mythic imagination: of the river under the river. Starkly original and expertly written, it draws you, like a faerie song, into a kingdom from which you may never escape, and may not want to
NEW STATESMAN
Dazzling and unsettling, much like the best and darkest of fairy tales
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
A dark, often discomforting debut … Gilbert’s sensuous prose conjures fantastical figures including a man born with a wing for an arm, and a girl who’s abducted by a water bull … Bewitching
MAIL ON SUNDAY, BEST NEW FICTION
<i>Folk</i> is absolutely stunning. I loved it. With gorgeous, incantatory prose, it submerges you in a mysterious and utterly compelling world. Its illumination lingers long after you close the book
- MADELINE MILLER,
I was thoroughly absorbed. Zoe Gilbert’s invented folk-world is sensuous and dangerous and thick with magic
- TESSA HADLEY,
That rare thing: genuinely unique. It’s part-myth, part-allegory, wholly wonderful
OBSERVER, BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A captivating mythical, magical and haunting debut which draws on fascinating folklore
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