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In Search of Solace

by Emily Mackie - £8.99  Hodder & Stoughton (2015)
paperback    ISBN 13: 9780340992531 | ISBN 10: 0340992530

LONGLISTED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE 2015 AND THE GREEN CARNATION PRIZE 2014
 
Jacob Little is in trouble - existential trouble. Over ten years, he has tried out such a range of identities that he has lost all sense of who he is. Convinced that only his ex-lover Solace can help, Jacob sets off for her Scottish hometown, only to get caught up in the lives of four people with their own issues: his self-deluding landlady, a teenager looking for a grand romance, an old watchmaker obsessed with time and a young girl who believes she's a boy. Each sees Jacob in a different light. For each, he is a catalyst. But where does that leave him? Or, dear reader, you?
 
It is only ever a name, this 'Jacob', for there isn't really a person here. There is no one in me at all. Can't you see? I am large. I contain multitudes.
 
Jacob Little is in trouble - existential trouble. Ten years ago, in pursuit of a theory, he'd ditched his girlfriend Solace and taken to the road, adopting a series of personae and obsessions: he's been Keith the archaeologist, Otto the purple-bearded pagan, Isaac the gardener, and many more. Now, with no sense of who he is at all, he's decided to find the one person who knows the real Jacob - Solace.
 
Jacob's quest leads him to Solace's Scottish hometown and into the lives of three people with their own issues. There's his obese landlady, in denial about her size as well as her husband; a teenager looking for a grand romance; and a young girl who would rather be a boy. Each one sees Jacob in a different light. For each, he is a catalyst. But where does that leave Jacob? And will he ever find Solace?
 
Playing fast and loose with past and present, this is a coruscating, darkly comic novel about identity, love, religion, memory, self-perception, self-delusion, modern Britain and time. A novel to make you question yourself; a novel to obsess about.

(Price & availability last checked: May 2015)

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In Search of Solace

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