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HERE [away from it all]
"An adult 'Lord of the Flies' "
BEST SELLERS
"HERE is a terrifying and true study of the total lack of rapprochement that can occur in a Mediterranean community between the indigenous people and the inevitable expatriate bunch. I have seen so often for myself the near tragedies than can occur through stupidity, selfishness and misunderstanding. This book is painful reading but it had to be written. I was deeply disturbed by it, but the disturbance was, thanks to Polly Hope's skills, also a keen literary pleasure."
ANTHONY BURGESS
"This is an urgently contemporary novel of horror and the unleashed forces of an alien spirit ‘Polly Hope writes beautifully!’"
NEW YORK TIMES
"HERE (away from it all)
One summer’s day on a Mediterranean island overrun with tourists, all communication with the outside world suddenly ceases. At first, bemused locals and foreign residents work together, but the banks quickly run out of cash and the restaurants stop taking credit.
For the unnamed narrator and her family it’s an inconvenience, but when the material goods run out they need something else to barter with. As the rules of civility become ever more strained, the islanders start to exact horrific revenge. Events escalate, sides are drawn up, old-time religion returns and the island slides into terrifying acts of rebellion and anarchy…
This beautifully written thriller plays like an adult ‘Lord of the Flies’, and was described by Time Out as ‘stunning’ and ‘superb’ on its original publication. Now it is back to mesmerise and haunt a new generation of readers with a message more timely than ever before."
CHRISTOPHER FOWLER
BEST SELLERS
"HERE is a terrifying and true study of the total lack of rapprochement that can occur in a Mediterranean community between the indigenous people and the inevitable expatriate bunch. I have seen so often for myself the near tragedies than can occur through stupidity, selfishness and misunderstanding. This book is painful reading but it had to be written. I was deeply disturbed by it, but the disturbance was, thanks to Polly Hope's skills, also a keen literary pleasure."
ANTHONY BURGESS
"This is an urgently contemporary novel of horror and the unleashed forces of an alien spirit ‘Polly Hope writes beautifully!’"
NEW YORK TIMES
"HERE (away from it all)
One summer’s day on a Mediterranean island overrun with tourists, all communication with the outside world suddenly ceases. At first, bemused locals and foreign residents work together, but the banks quickly run out of cash and the restaurants stop taking credit.
For the unnamed narrator and her family it’s an inconvenience, but when the material goods run out they need something else to barter with. As the rules of civility become ever more strained, the islanders start to exact horrific revenge. Events escalate, sides are drawn up, old-time religion returns and the island slides into terrifying acts of rebellion and anarchy…
This beautifully written thriller plays like an adult ‘Lord of the Flies’, and was described by Time Out as ‘stunning’ and ‘superb’ on its original publication. Now it is back to mesmerise and haunt a new generation of readers with a message more timely than ever before."
CHRISTOPHER FOWLER
195 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 3, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 21, 2019
A fantasy book set on a Mediterranean island where, after some cataclysmic event, locals revert to ancient beliefs to the detriment of tourists trapped there. I actually first read this book many years ago as a young man when I found it in the library of an oil tanker I was working on. It has always remained in my memory as I found it uplifting in a thoroughly depressing way. You keep expecting some rescue to arrive and turn things round but, just like real life often is, the tide never turns, until in the final pages all hope is lost. A very brave non-engineered conclusion written at a time when such things were rare in popular fiction. I believe, but can't be sure that this may be one of only a small number of works published by this author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2021
A Cautionary Tale for Our Times
What would happen if your privilege and humanity were stripped away by people who secretly despised you? In these days of white privilege and male privilege being held to account, HERE is a disturbing cautionary tale of how far people will go to extract revenge. The brutality is harsh, the outcome is grim. Not for the faint of heart.
What would happen if your privilege and humanity were stripped away by people who secretly despised you? In these days of white privilege and male privilege being held to account, HERE is a disturbing cautionary tale of how far people will go to extract revenge. The brutality is harsh, the outcome is grim. Not for the faint of heart.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews