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A review by scribepub
The Sacred Combe by Thomas Maloney
An ingenious and atmospheric first novel, inspired by the discovery of a mysterious library lost deep in the English countryside, and vibrating with the literary and musical echoes of late Romanticism, and lots of weather.
Richard Holmes, Author of Coleridge and The Age of Wonder
An exceptional first novel – intelligent, intriguing, wonderfully written, and rich with an atmosphere and sense of place that make it a joy to read.
James Wilson, Author of The Summer of Broken Stories
A very unusual book, at once a trickster tale and a commentary on the canonical texts of Romanticism.
Joanne Limburg, Author of A Want of Kindness
An atmospheric novel sprinkled with literary and musical allusion.
Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald
Beautiful … An intriguing gothic mystery.
Fanny Blake, Daily Mail
A literary hall of mirrors with echoes and ripples running through it.
The Tablet
The Sacred Combe gets top marks for its dreamlike, timeless atmosphere and it leaves a note of ambiguity hanging in its wake.
Sunday Herald
A bibliophile’s delight, a mystery, a tease, a frisson of dread, a fugue, a literary detective story, a philosophical fable — its imagination exquisitely calibrated to a gentle Gothicism where Bach, Coleridge, Thomas Chatterton and Edgar Allan Poe flit among the shades. Thomas Maloney’s perfectly judged story, with its vital and resonant sense of place, will surely become one of the beloved arcana of English fiction.
Jim Perrin, Author of West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss
Richard Holmes, Author of Coleridge and The Age of Wonder
An exceptional first novel – intelligent, intriguing, wonderfully written, and rich with an atmosphere and sense of place that make it a joy to read.
James Wilson, Author of The Summer of Broken Stories
A very unusual book, at once a trickster tale and a commentary on the canonical texts of Romanticism.
Joanne Limburg, Author of A Want of Kindness
An atmospheric novel sprinkled with literary and musical allusion.
Cameron Woodhead, Sydney Morning Herald
Beautiful … An intriguing gothic mystery.
Fanny Blake, Daily Mail
A literary hall of mirrors with echoes and ripples running through it.
The Tablet
The Sacred Combe gets top marks for its dreamlike, timeless atmosphere and it leaves a note of ambiguity hanging in its wake.
Sunday Herald
A bibliophile’s delight, a mystery, a tease, a frisson of dread, a fugue, a literary detective story, a philosophical fable — its imagination exquisitely calibrated to a gentle Gothicism where Bach, Coleridge, Thomas Chatterton and Edgar Allan Poe flit among the shades. Thomas Maloney’s perfectly judged story, with its vital and resonant sense of place, will surely become one of the beloved arcana of English fiction.
Jim Perrin, Author of West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss