Villager

Villages are full of tales.

Some are forgotten while others become a part of local folklore. But the fortunes of one British village are watched over and irreversibly etched into its history as an omniscient, somewhat crabby, presence keeps track of village life. Yes, this is a novel told from the point of view of…a hill. And also lots of village personalities.

In the late sixties a Californian musician blows through Underhill where he writes a set of haunting folk songs that will earn him a group of obsessive fans and a cult following.Two decades later, a couple of teenagers disturb a body on the local golf course. In 2019, a pair of lodgers discover a one-eyed rag doll hidden in the walls of their crumbling and neglected home.

Tom Cox’s masterful (and sometimes spooky) novel is a psychedelic and enthralling exploration of village life, a book of rivers, hills, soil, stone, and swirling time.

“Funny, thought-provoking and astoundingly clever ... What will I be able to read after Villager? I'll just read it again, I guess. And again. Just cancel all other books.”— Adele Nozedar, author of The Hedgerow Handbook