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God's Own Country
God's Own Country
Jul 24, 2025 9:13 PM

Author:Ross Raisin

God's Own Country

Granta Best Young British Novelist and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, Shortlisted for NINE literary awards

'Ross Raisin's story of how a disturbed but basically well-intentioned rural youngster turns into a malevolent sociopath is both chilling in its effect and convincing in its execution' J. M. Coetzee

'Utterly frightening and electrifying' Joshua Ferris

'Astonishing, funny, unsettling ... An unforgettable creation [whose] literary forebears include Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield and Alex from A Clockwork Orange' The Times

'Remarkable, compelling, very funny and very disturbing . . . like no other character in contemporary fiction' Sunday Times

In God's Own Country, one of the most celebrated debut novels of recent years, Ross Raisin tells the story of solitary young farmer, Sam Marsdyke, and his extraordinary battle with the world.

Expelled from school and cut off from the town, mistrusted by his parents and avoided by city incomers, Marsdyke is a loner until he meets rebellious new neighbour Josephine. But what begins as a friendship and leads to thoughts of escape across the moors turns to something much, much darker with every step.

'Powerful, engrossing, extraordinary, sinister, comic. A masterful debut' Observer

Reviews

A bittersweet work, tough and touching at the same time. Kurkov's style is spare and effective, drawing us with deceptive ease into a dense, complex world full of wonderful characters

—— Michael Palin

Inventive, funny and worryingly prophetic

—— Tibor Fischer , Guardian

Kurkov is a fine satirist and a real, blackly comic find

—— Observer

Kurkov sports a double whammy: the fiercest of political intelligences married to a truly surrealistic mindset ... This is an ambitious, multi-layered political black comedy

—— Independent

Kurkov's eye for the absurdities of Ukrainian life is as sharp as ever

—— Sunday Telegraph

Sparkily funny and richly satirical

—— Metro

By turns darkly humorous, sometimes hilarious, particularly when any of his characters bump up against the state and touchingly endearing as his characters struggle through their tribulations

—— Sunday Express

comical, charming... funny and distinct

—— Toby Clements , Daily Telegraph

Kurkov's touching and multi-layered satire sheds a surprisingly mellow light on life and lies before and after the iron curtain

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent
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