Quilt

Nicholas Royle's highly praised debut novel recalls David Mitchell's lyrical bravado: in a world where our very language is being appropriated by advertising, propaganda and whatever new technologies can do to mangle it, Royle asserts that the novel has to survive by adapting, staying fresh-and undergoing bizarre metamorphoses. Quilt confronts the mad hand of grief while embracing the endless possibilities of language. Tender, absorbing and at times shockingly funny, this extraordinary novel is both mystery and love story. His challenge to and experiments with literary form forge a new mode of storytelling that is both playful and inquisitive. He sets about the mundane yet exhausting process of sorting through the remnants of his father's life - clearing away years of accumulated objects, unearthing forgotten memories and the haunted realms of everyday life. At the same time, he embarks on an eccentric side-project. And as he grows increasingly obsessed with this new project, his grip on reality seems to slip.