This was Golding’s 2nd published novel and hailed by critics as his best, so startling was it that one, Arthur Koestler, described it as ‘an earthquake in the petrified forests of the English Novel’.
55 years on the novel charting the downfall of the Neanderthals, from their perspective, by the violent race of Homo Sapiens is still shocking.
Hunt, trek, and feast among Neanderthals in this stunning novel by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Ben Okri. This was a different voice; not the voice of the people. It was the voice of other.
When spring comes, the people leave their winter cave, foraging for honey, grubs, and the hot richness of a deer's brain. They awaken the fire to heat their naked bodies, lay down their thorn bushes, and share pictures in their minds. But strange things are happening: inexplicable scents and sounds. Imaginable beasts are half-glimpsed in the forest; upright creatures of bone-faces and deerskins. What the people do not know is that their day is already over ...
'Extraordinary ... Genius ... Remarkable in the literature of the twentieth century.' Ben Okri
'A stun gun to read ... Truly a masterpiece.' Monique Roffey
'An earthquake in the petrified forests of the English novel.' Arthur Koestler
'An astonishing, underrated novel.' Robert MacFarlane
'Beautiful, powerful ... A visionary dream . Shakespearean.' Ted Hughes
'A master fabulist, and a brilliantly creative interpreter of remote history ... An iconoclast.' John Fowles
'A tour de force ... Genius.' Daily Telegraph
'Alarming, eye-opening, desolating, mind-invading and unique.' New Statesman
'I admire Golding pushing beyond his own experiences to explore ancient worlds and altered states of consciousness.' Rose Tremain
