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An atmospheric and unsettling story of the depths of grief found in an ancient farm in northern England, soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.
The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby's son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place. Convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, Juliette seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree. But as they delve further into their grief, both uncover more than they set out to.
Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.
"[Hurley] ably captured the vibe of the era's demon-spawn novels like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist... Top-shelf gothic-folk horror."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Hurley has a slow and steady hand in establishing a gloomy, nearly gothic atmosphere, allowing his characters' grief room to breathe even as he tightens the noose in ways readers won't see coming until the chilling and memorable conclusion. This is folk horror that knows how to take its time."
—Publisher's Weekly
"Hurley is a graceful, confident stylist and for this reason alone he is a joy to read."
—The Guardian
"The best closing line of any novel we have read this year ... A strange and unsettling read."
—The Times (UK), a Fiction Book of the Year pick
"A tour de force of physiological fantasia ... Writing of this quality - sensuous, exact, observant - ensures that other scenes, too, pulse with vitality ... Hurley's gothic storylines send specters of deathliness through his fictional world. His prose brings it vividly alive"
—Sunday Times (UK), Fiction Book of the Year pick
"Expertly paced ... creepy and marvelous."
—Daily Mail (UK), a "Books of the Year" pick
"[Hurley] is one of the most interesting and eerie writers of contemporary horror."
—The Scotsman
"Brilliantly written ... Evoking Ted Hughes's style of writing, Hurley is adept at seamlessly intertwining the malignant savagery of nature with abstract use of imagery for horror effect. He has this uncanny ability of bringing the palpable supernatural to life with a neat, serene turn of phrase. All these hallmarks of superlative writing are in full display in this impeccable work of folk horror. Starve Acre is a haunting portrait of what happens in the liminal space between grief and sanity."
―Irish Times
This information about Starve Acre was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Andrew Michael Hurley is based in Lancashire. His first novel, The Loney, was published in twenty languages, and won the Costa Best First Novel Award and the Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards. Devil's Day, his second novel, was picked as a Book of the Year in five newspapers, and won the Encore Award.
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