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The Colony (Hardback)

Audrey Magee

‘A vivid and memorable book about art, land and language, love and sev, youth and age. Big ideas tread lightly through Audrey Magee’s strong prose.’ Sarah Moss

Format
Hardback
ISBN
9780571367597
Date Published
03.02.2022
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.
Summary

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022

‘Vivid and memorable.’ SARAH MOSS
‘Luminous.’ Observer
‘I utterly ADORED it.’ MARIAN KEYES

He handed the easel to the boatman, reaching down the pier wall towards the sea.

Mr Lloyd has decided to travel to the island by boat without engine – the authentic experience.

Unbeknownst to him, Mr Masson will also soon be arriving for the summer. Both will strive to encapsulate the truth of this place – one in his paintings, the other by capturing its speech, the language he hopes to preserve.

But the people who live on this rock – three miles long and half-a-mile wide – have their own views on what is being recorded, what is being taken and what is given in return. Soft summer days pass, and the islanders are forced to question what they value and what they desire. As the autumn beckons, and the visitors head home, there will be a reckoning.

‘‘Beautifully written.’ STELLA, The Telegraph
The Colony contains multitudes. . . with much of it just visible on the surface, like the flicker of a smile or a shark in the water.’ The Times
The Colony is a novel about big, important things.’ Financial Times
‘Beautiful, haunting and incredibly powerful book.’ FÍONA SCARLETT

Critic Reviews

A careful interrogation, The Colony expertly explores the mutability of language and art, the triumphs and failures inherent to the process of creation and preservation.

Raven Leilani, author of Luster
Critic Reviews

The Colony is a brilliant and thoughtfully calibrated commentary about the nature and balance of power. There is violence here, but, most impressively, Audrey Magee captures that more insidious cruelty—the kind masked as protection, as manners.

Mary Beth Keane
Critic Reviews

The Colony is a vivid and memorable book about art, youth, love and sex, land and language. Big ideas tread lightly through Audrey Magee’s strong prose.

Sarah Moss
Critic Reviews

The Colony is brimming with ideas about identity and soul; a canny, challenging, and never less than engrossing read.

Lisa McInerney
Critic Reviews

I utterly ADORED The Colony by Audrey. Such an INTERESTING novel about imperialism, colonisation, language and art, beautifully written and oh my God, the West of Ireland dialogue.

Marian Keyes
Critic Reviews

Audrey Magee has written a lyrical, rich, and emotionally powerful novel. The Colony comes alive like a brooding and beautiful canvas painted off the Irish coast.

Dominic Smith
AudreyMagee

Audrey Magee was born in Ireland and lives in Wicklow. Her first novel, The Undertaking, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, for France’s Festival du Premier Roman and for the Irish Book Awards. It was also nominated for the Dublin Literary Award and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The Undertaking has been translated into ten languages and…

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