This, for me, is one of the most surprising and satisfying elements of the novel, and makes me think that the book heralds a great talent. The characters of Dud and Yip are well crafted and I wish he would have done a little more with “Mama”.

Later, after Yip is separated from Dud, he’s gathered under the wing of the roguish Jim Coyne, travelling onwards in his wagon. It also took me a little while to get used to the fact that the author doesn’t use quotation marks in conversations and the chapters are very very short (which is why there are 90+ chapters). Mute but eloquent, Yip comes thrillingly into our midst to unfurl his singular and singing book of revelations. And, as Yip and Dud’s odyssey takes them further into the unknown – via travelling shows, escaped slaves and the greed of gold-hungry men – the pull of home only gets stronger.

Owen Meany meets Days Without End meets Django Unchained…although comparing My Name is Yip with these titles may be a bit too much praise. His debut novel, My Name Is Yip, has been shortlisted for the Betty Trask, the Wilbur Smith, a South Bank Sky Arts Award and the Society of Authors First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. I thought the novel started out a bit slow and dry, and it took me a few chapters to get used to the narrator’s voice. It gave me such a rare reading experience, putting it down left me feeling almost empty, as if, I didn't quite know what to read after it, because whatever it was, it wouldn't be this. When they tested his reactions, he writhed and squirmed and was in obvious pain but was completely silent.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Random capitalizations are used throughout, and the use of an ampersand in the place of the word "and" was distracting. I had thought this book was historical fiction, but it was more of fiction than realistic or historical. One October night in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, Yip Tolroy is born, the cord snaked around his fragile neck, his skin a deathly white. Mostly for me, it reads like some of the old Western mountain men and trapper books that I used to love, but Yip has a tone and spirit of his own.Thank you to the publishers for this review copy, now it is a western - so it's not really my go to read, but this is very well written debut.

If you are to mark your permanence and have yourself heard in this world, then there is only one way to do it. This rip roaring, page-turning historical adventure yarn is an accomplished and assured debut novel.As a teenager, events catapault him into a life on the run which lead to a series of adventures and run-ins with numerous colourful and often dangerous characters. Paul Howarth, author of Only Killers and Thieves * I love the compelling narrator, somehow a cross between Charles Dickens's David Copperfield and Charles Portis's Mattie Ross. What a marvel this novel by Paddy Crewe is, what an unlooked-for firecracker of fury and beauty and rage and hope. The first part of his narrative focuses upon his early life in the benighted Heron’s Creek, a frontier town full of intrigue and poisonous gossip.