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Angels of Destruction
Angels of Destruction
Nov 29, 2025 3:46 AM

Author:Keith Donohue

Angels of Destruction

Angels of Destruction is the mesmerising story of Norah, a nine-year-old girl who seems to materialise out of thin air when she arrives one bitterly cold night on the doorstep of Margaret Quinn. A widow who lives alone, Margaret has never got over the loss of her own child, a runaway called Erica who fled with her high school sweetheart, Wiley, to join a '60s-style band of West Coast revolutionaries known as Angels of Destruction.

Norah becomes Margaret's secret, a child possessed of magical qualities. But who is she really? And what is her purpose here? And what is this strange child's connection to Margaret's missing daughter?

Reviews

Marvelous... Beautiful and wrenching

—— The Washington Post

This is a beautifully told story that's slightly eerie, compelling and sad

—— Natasha Harding , Sun

An intriguing, intelligent tale... Donohue creates a world both strange and surprising while also touching and compassionate

—— Antonia Charlesworth , Big Issue

'Like a Barbara Pym novel, though Joanna Trollope has a much stronger grasp than Pym on the tangled web of family life'

—— The Times

We are astoundingly lucky to have Michael Moorcock. In his range, his skill, invention and his passion he exemplifies the very best of more than one literary tradition

—— China Mieville

Here we have one of science fiction and fantasy's most respected and well-loved authors writing Doctor Who. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is absolutely nothing. This is a phenomenal book - 10/10

—— Total Sci Fi

Exhilarating, funny and deeply peculiar...It's been years since the Doctor Who range put out anything as smart and engaging as this. Fingers crossed it's the first of many such volumes

—— SFX

A bold, eccentric quasi space opera

—— Doctor Who Magazine

The great Michael Moorcock has written a Doctor Who book which is like Burt Bacharach knocking out an album for Lady Gaga

—— Word Magazine

A marvel- beautifully written, surprisingly moving, quietly rather brilliant

—— Harry Ritchie , Daily Mail

While Malouf's chief interest is in the human impulses that lie behind the epic deeds, he remains faithful to the beliefs and values of the ancient world

—— Edmund Gordon , Times Literary Supplement

immensely moving, modern novel

—— Elizabeth Speller , Independent

A dignified performance ... in writing this novel Malouf is honouring a great work and also making a great work of his own ... his graceful fiction deals in truth and is always beautiful

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

Beautifully written and very moving, Ransom is a reimagining that respects Homer's original while expanding expertly on its themes.

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Malouf captures the moving humanity of Priam's grief

—— Robert Collins , Sunday Times

Lyrical reworking of the final scenes of The Iliad

—— Metro

This superb novel goes by in a heartbeat, so smooth and engrossing is David Malouf's prose...It is a touching tale, full of pain, but rendered beautifully by Malouf's humanity

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

An audacious reworking of Homer's Iliad.

—— Holly Kyte , Sunday Telegraph

David Malouf...has given Homer's epic fresh life in this haunting mood piece...a graceful, eloquent text dominated by rage and sorrow

—— Eileen Battersby , Irish Times

This novel explores the timeless motifs of epic, in miniature

—— The Times

You know it ends in death, and so do Malouf's haunted protagonists, but this telling, at once unfussy and wonderfully poetic, breathes warm life into a great epic

—— James Smart , Guardian

Breathtaking skill...an extraordinary emotional charge.

—— Colm Toibin , Guardian, Christmas round up

A finely honed, writerly and wise revisiting of one of the most famous episodes in The Iliad, when Priam the King of Troy goes to bring home the body of his dead son Hector. No-one in prose has managed to better Malouf's imaginative recreation of the Homeric world.

—— Robert Crawford , Sunday Herald, Christmas round up

a potent new yarn... Beautifully written in simple language freighted with meaning, Ransom explores a king's impulse to act as a mourning father.

—— James Urquhart , Financial Times
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