Book Synopsis:
The eagerly awaited new novel from Bobby Palmer, author of the critically acclaimed debut Isaac and the Egg.
If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden, here’s what you’d see:
A father and son, a fox standing between them.
Jack, home for the first time in years, still determined to be the opposite of his father.
Gerry, who would rather talk to animals than the angry man back under his roof.
Everything that follows is because of the fox, and because Jack’s mother is missing. It spans generations of big dreams and lost time, unexpected connections and things falling apart, great wide worlds and the moments that define us.
If you met them in the small hours, you’d begin to piece together their story.
My Review:
I was a huge fan of this author’s debut novel Isaac And The Egg so I was very excited to be given an early copy of his second book Small Hours which I thought was another beautifully written, thought provoking and heart warming read.
The story is told from the point of view of Jack who’s trying to rebuild his life after a few changes and Gerry who’s struggling with memory lost as well as flashbacks to key moments in the family’s past. The character’s are all given an individual voice and I loved how they are written so that I felt like I was actually the character, experiencing everything alongside them. This was especially true of Gerry’s point of view as it was fascinating to learn what it must be like from someone suffering from Dementia. It must be so frustrating and it made me feel very sorry for Gerry when he obviously wanted to explain something but no one else seemed to believe him. Jack is also a very sympathetic character who, despite his prickliness I wish I could just give a massive hug.
The story has a good pace to it and I enjoyed following all the characters on their journey. It was very interesting to follow the family through their history to better understand their family dynamics and to see them slowly work through all their problems to better understand each other. There were some very poignant moments and it was very emotional to see all the sides of the story. It made me realise how easy it is for things to be misconstrued and to become fractured from your family. The fox was a brilliant edition that I absolutely loved. I don’t want to say too much about him as I don’t want to give anything away but I really wish I had a fox friend too.
Huge thanks to Ollie Martin from Headline for sending me a copy of this book.
About The Author:
BOBBY PALMER is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He is co-host of the literary podcast BOOK CHAT with Pandora Sykes.
His debut novel, ISAAC AND THE EGG, was an instant Saturday Times bestseller, selling 50,000 copies in its first year of publication. A Prima and Woman & Home ‘Best Book of 2022’, the novel has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book, featured as the Guardian ‘Audiobook of the Week’, and was chosen by Dawn O’Porter as part of her ‘Dawn Loves’ book club with WHSmith.
Bobby’s second novel, SMALL HOURS, will publish in March 2024.
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