Delphi
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
'Vivid as fireworks ... Both terrifying and exhilarating' Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat
'Funny and sharp ... A hungry book, looking everywhere and seeing everything' Observer
In a time more turbulent than any of us could have ever imagined, a woman is attempting to write a book about prophecy in the ancient world.
Navigating the tightening grip of lockdown, a marriage in crisis, and a ten-year-old son who seems increasingly unreachable, she becomes fixated on our many forms of divination and prediction: on oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves and the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates.
But in doing so she fails to notice the future creeping into the heart of her own home. For despite our best intentions - our sacrifices and our bargains with the gods - time, certainty and, sometimes, those we love, can still slip away ...
Heartbreakingly relatable and achingly funny Delphi is both a snapshot and a time capsule, deftly capturing our pasts, our presents, and how we keep on going in a world that is ever more uncertain and absurd.
'Impressive ... What good fiction is meant to do' The New York Times
'Bold, brave and uncompromising, Pollard has found a way to write about the last couple of years which is both truthful and enjoyable to read, which I didn't think was possible' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Everyone is Still Alive
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Pollard (The Heavy-Petting Zoo) follows an unnamed professor and mother's adjustment to the Covid-19 lockdown in her richly layered debut novel. The narrator's interior monologue alternates between racing panic and numbed tedium as she juggles a classics course, a translation project, and research on divination methods for her next book. As her 10-year-old son, Xander, deals with depression, and the two become increasingly isolated, she calls upon German words to define her state of mind. The novel is separated into short chapters, each named after a form of prophecy she's been researching, which she connects to her attempts to cope with the new normal (in "Tarotmancy: Prophecy by Tarot," she counts Xander among her mixed blessings while drawing a tarot card from a deck). In some chapters, the narrator meditates monotonously for several pages on what happens during a single hour; in others, she rushes through a matter of months in a few paragraphs. The uneven pacing creates discomfort, which seems to be the point; though Pollard's fractured narrative is difficult to get through at times, it effectively conveys the first year of the pandemic. It's low-key compared to other recent pandemic fiction, but the main character's frustration and fear is sure to strike a chord.