Reviews of Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd
Sarah Waters, Kate Atkinson, Zoe Heller and Fflur Dafydd... [part of] the blossoming and triumphs of a whole new generation of young women writers.Peter Florence, The Western Mail, May 09
A wild, exhilarating read. Catherine Taylor,
The most compelling novel I've read in years: a love-story, a thriller, and a profound meditation on language and identity... My fiction pick [of the festival programme] this year.
Brilliant... one of the best reads for decades. Peter Finch
Bristles with imagery, yet moves with the languid pace of island life through language and culture, myth and misunderstanding, sexuality and privacy. It is warm, witty, intelligent, perceptive and beautifully crafted. [Dafydd] has the precision of a thriller writer while always in full command of her disparate characters. The Western Mail
**** Four Star Review: {Fflur} Dafydd is a magical writer and an acute observer of human nature. What a joy to find such a languorous piece of Sapphic speculation in the opening pages of this wonderful novel! Diva Magazine
Wry and tender... about the relationship between nature and civilisation... relationships... the lure of being alone... [and] necessary uncertainty. Anna Kiernan, New Welsh Review
Loved reading this - brilliantly observed, funny, sharp and politically charged - read it! www.livingsocial.com/books
Wry, engaging and perceptive, Twenty Thousand Saints is a beautifully rendered story of multiple forms of enquiry and excavation – spiritual, linguistic, filmic and sexual. Dafydd's laid-back narrative voice seems perfectly tuned to her cast of characters and the changes that befall them when they encounter this novel's most dominant personality, the isolated island of Bardsey herself, and all the secrets and history she holds.
Owen Sheers
The prose is luminous and Dafydd writes with a poet's eye…a beautifully-crafted piece of writing imbued with a strange power to hold the attention of the reader on the eternal questions of love, loss, communication, passion and what it is to be alive. Anyone with an interest in the human condition should have it on their shelves.
Dai Blatchford, Swansea Life
Author Fflur Dafydd's cool, unflustered attitude towards lesbian themes represents a really healthy situation for literature on gay themes. The novel is an exciting, engaging thriller, wonderfully described in terms of character development, landscape and sense of island life. The peculiarities and claustrophobia, as well as the warmth and other positives of life in a small community are nailed on the head. The delight of this novel is that [lesbian] characters and plotlines are an everyday part of the story. It is above all a novel about women's relationships and friendships, some sexual, some more in the category of yearning, but all mainly supportive.
Cath Sherrell, Stonewall Honor GLBTRT Books in Literature Award Nomination (American Libraries Association)
A whipcracking mystery... also exploring sex, friendship and love in an island setting that is both claustrophobic and inhibition-freeing... Bardsey Island is the novel's main character, its depiction inspiring the reader to go there themselves... most impressive is the awkwardness and longing the characters grapple with as they face their departure. Elin Llwyd Morgan, Barn
Mischief and madness are found in all... places on the... Bardsey Island of this novel... Fflur Dafydd's poetic narrative breathes life into her... characters... unearth[ing] each [one's]... secret, and compel[ling] the reader to dig deeper. Twenty Thousand Saints is a dark, comedic thriller that explores intense bonds between people and their loved ones... a gripping read. Abi Rhodes, The Spokesman journal (Ed, Ken Coates, Bertrand Russel Peace Foundation)
A wild, exhilarating read. Catherine Taylor,
The Guardian
The most compelling novel I've read in years: a love-story, a thriller, and a profound meditation on language and identity... My fiction pick [of the festival programme] this year.
Peter Florence, director, Guardian Hay Festival
Brilliant... one of the best reads for decades. Peter Finch
Bristles with imagery, yet moves with the languid pace of island life through language and culture, myth and misunderstanding, sexuality and privacy. It is warm, witty, intelligent, perceptive and beautifully crafted. [Dafydd] has the precision of a thriller writer while always in full command of her disparate characters. The Western Mail
**** Four Star Review: {Fflur} Dafydd is a magical writer and an acute observer of human nature. What a joy to find such a languorous piece of Sapphic speculation in the opening pages of this wonderful novel! Diva Magazine
Wry and tender... about the relationship between nature and civilisation... relationships... the lure of being alone... [and] necessary uncertainty. Anna Kiernan, New Welsh Review
Loved reading this - brilliantly observed, funny, sharp and politically charged - read it! www.livingsocial.com/books
Wry, engaging and perceptive, Twenty Thousand Saints is a beautifully rendered story of multiple forms of enquiry and excavation – spiritual, linguistic, filmic and sexual. Dafydd's laid-back narrative voice seems perfectly tuned to her cast of characters and the changes that befall them when they encounter this novel's most dominant personality, the isolated island of Bardsey herself, and all the secrets and history she holds.
Owen Sheers
The prose is luminous and Dafydd writes with a poet's eye…a beautifully-crafted piece of writing imbued with a strange power to hold the attention of the reader on the eternal questions of love, loss, communication, passion and what it is to be alive. Anyone with an interest in the human condition should have it on their shelves.
Dai Blatchford, Swansea Life
Author Fflur Dafydd's cool, unflustered attitude towards lesbian themes represents a really healthy situation for literature on gay themes. The novel is an exciting, engaging thriller, wonderfully described in terms of character development, landscape and sense of island life. The peculiarities and claustrophobia, as well as the warmth and other positives of life in a small community are nailed on the head. The delight of this novel is that [lesbian] characters and plotlines are an everyday part of the story. It is above all a novel about women's relationships and friendships, some sexual, some more in the category of yearning, but all mainly supportive.
Cath Sherrell, Stonewall Honor GLBTRT Books in Literature Award Nomination (American Libraries Association)
A whipcracking mystery... also exploring sex, friendship and love in an island setting that is both claustrophobic and inhibition-freeing... Bardsey Island is the novel's main character, its depiction inspiring the reader to go there themselves... most impressive is the awkwardness and longing the characters grapple with as they face their departure. Elin Llwyd Morgan, Barn
Mischief and madness are found in all... places on the... Bardsey Island of this novel... Fflur Dafydd's poetic narrative breathes life into her... characters... unearth[ing] each [one's]... secret, and compel[ling] the reader to dig deeper. Twenty Thousand Saints is a dark, comedic thriller that explores intense bonds between people and their loved ones... a gripping read. Abi Rhodes, The Spokesman journal (Ed, Ken Coates, Bertrand Russel Peace Foundation)
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