Nobber

by Oisín Fagan

An ambitious noble and his three serving men travel through the Irish countryside in the stifling summer of 1348, using the advantage of the plague which has collapsed society to buy up large swathes of property and land. They come upon Nobber, a tiny town, whose only living habitants seem to be an egotistical bureaucrat, his volatile wife, a naked blacksmith, and a beautiful Gaelic hostage. Meanwhile, a band of marauding Gaels are roaming around, using the confusion of the sickness to pillage and reclaim lands that once belonged to them.

As these groups converge upon the town, the habitants, who up until this point have been under strict curfew, begin to stir from their dwellings, demanding answers from the intruders. A deadly stand-off emerges from which no one will escape unscathed.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature, Historical, Medieval, Literary Fiction

300 pages, Hardcover

First published July 25, 2019

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

UPDATE - I wanted to bring to everybody's attention there is now a fine audiobook of Nobber. The narrator is Niall Buggy who captures the voice and mood of the novel splendidly.


The year is 1348 and we're traveling with nineteen-year-old nobleman Osprey de Flunkl who leads his three servants on a trek across the Irish countryside to claim as much land and property as humanly possible. Why not? - after all, sickness, disease and death reign supreme and Flunkl can take advantage of the prevailing chaos. Today we have a name for this phenomenon that reduced the population of fourteenth century Europe by nearly half - the Black Death.

Here's our young Irish author Oisín Fagan on why he finds the Black Death so fascinating: "Your immediate urge as a novelist is to draw narrative, meaning and sense out of every event, and dystopian writers, especially, are often guilty of destroying all humanity to make a political point or for amusement – the latter being far preferable, in my view. But the deeper I got into writing the book, the more I realized that my deepest fear was not that people could use an event like the plague for selfish purposes, but that the plague could happen at all, and that, happening, it might not mean anything; that it might just be pure destruction. The longer I inhabited the experience of the final moments of a person, a family, a society, the more I felt eclipsed by the huge non-meaning of it all; how it was a profoundly non-political event around which there could perhaps be no discussion or understanding. But perhaps this non-meaning I felt was just the birth pains of another type of understanding."

My writing this review in March 2020 has a definite edge since we're witnessing the coronavirus spreading day by day. Fortunately, thanks to modern science, we in the 21st century can pinpoint the causes of the virus and know what measures can be taken to better protect ourselves, our families and our communities. Not so in 1348 - not even remotely close for those suffering and dying in the medieval world of religion and superstition.

While making my way through this book, I kept asking myself: What other novel does Oisín Fagan's tale of extreme grotesquerie bring to mind? Aha! Of course: Barefoot in the Head by Brian Aldiss where the entire continent of Europe had been subjected to LSD-like psychedelics and everyone is on an unending acid trip.

Likewise in Nobber - medieval Europe has been subjected to the devastation of plague and everyone is on an unending scrambled pain trip, so scrambled and so painful, one wonders where the hallucination stops and reality begins. Let's take a look at a quartet of examples:

Flunkl and his retinue encounter a group of Gaels emerging from the forest - all male, all bearded, all mounted on their horses and armed with spears. These Gaels are also stalking the Irish countryside for plunder and property. Following an exchange of insults, the Gael leader hurls a rat down on the retinue. Immediately thereafter: "The other Gaels are in a circle around the caped Gael, lifting fistfuls of rats out of the folds and throwing them down at them. One large rat sails by de Flunkl's shoulder and hits Saint John in the face." Does this sound like a combination of comedy and shock value right out of Monty Python? Welcome to the land of Nobber.

A mother in the town is driven mad since she cannot produce milk to nurse her babe. At one point this mother by the name Dervorgilla dips her finger in a water basin and "she realizes the water had not been covered by dust, but by many sleeping midges. Unsettled, they rise up at once in a hazy cloud and disperse around the room." Further along, she reflects: "All the houses have been closed up. Already, from so brief an exposure, her head is itchy, prickling with heat. This is a dead town, sealed and rotting. The dogs fled a month ago, or were cooked in communal fires." So, so sad, and horrific - the much documented fate of hundreds of medieval villages caught in the clutches of the Black Death.

Osprey de Flunkl and his not so merry band come upon a frightening sight - a figure twice the size of a normal man and black as pitch. Is it a demon? As they approach even closer, all eyes glimpse its true makeup: "a criciform of wood, nailed together into the shape of a man, but on it, thickly laid like a skeleton's musculature, are reams of dead crows, and they give the form a certain plumpness and lifelikeness from a distance. The dead crows are strung together with think sprigs, or nailed into the wood at the outer extremities. Their stony beaks poke out at strange angles like mussels sucking at rocks by the sea. Their eyes are uniformly closed. It is a monstrous, feathery thing, standing two heads taller than a big man. Atop this strange structure, encircling three crows' bodies sits a peasant's cap." If you've seen the film The Wicker Man, you have a general idea of this bizarre creation covered in dead and near-dead crows.

The retinue finally makes it to Nobber. But as they lead their horses to the still water of the town's fountain, they are taken aback by a striking sight. "On the other side of the fountain is a young woman, covered in blood from toe to top, washing twenty feet worth of purple intestines, all thickly folded in on themselves, dunking and splashing them about in the water." We read these words knowing via a previous episode the intestines are from a horse disemboweled as an act of revenge.

The above quotes I've included illustrate the lushness and dark beauty of Oisín Fagan's language and images. Nobber is a novel of adventure, a difficult to categorize sojourn into medieval Ireland that compels a reader to contemplate the cruel twists of fate confronting our human species both then and now.


Irish author Oisín Fagan, born 1973

[Nadine in California · Rating 5 out of 5]

How in the world did I have such a delightful time reading such an unflinchingly visceral novel about an Irish town during the bubonic plague of 1348? I think the author got me so drunk on his writing that I reveled in it all - comic, grotesque, philosophic, tender, cruel, poetic, mad, slapstick - it's all there. Even though I felt immersed in the Middle Ages, the novel came to feel more dystopian than historical - the apocalypse has arrived, and we watch a large cast of townspeople and outsiders attempt to survive the plague and each other. The characters are a motley, fascinating, entertaining and unnerving bunch, and I imagine we won't be much different when our apocalypse finally arrives.

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

William realises, with a great and defeating disappointment, that he has met yet another insane person.

A grim, sobering, but highly erudite and mentally stimulating read in the light of Covid-19, as 670 years earlier, flocks of corvids haunt a plague-ridden Ireland, and some beasts of the human kind take advantage of the disintegration of society:

Intransigent chaos has blurred man into animal, turned law into farce, shifted man into corpse, yoked child into slave, disposed of all previous hierarchies more ruthlessly and indiscriminately than any uprising has ever done, and, why, amidst so much confusion, carnage and distress, should a healthy, resourceful man like himself, who has always had so little of what he craved, not become a little richer?

As the author has said (https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...)

The deeper I got into writing the book, the more I realised that my deepest fear was not that people could use an event like the plague for selfish purposes, but that the plague could happen at all, and that, happening, it might not mean anything; that it might just be pure destruction. The longer I inhabited the experience of the final moments of a person, a family, a society, the more I felt eclipsed by the huge non-meaning of it all; how it was a profoundly non-political event around which there could perhaps be no discussion or understanding.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now longlisted for the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction.

Intransigent chaos has blurred man into animal, turned law into farce, shifted man into corpse, yoked child into slave, disposed of all previous hierarchies more ruthlessly and indiscriminately than any uprising has ever done, and, why amidst so much confusion, carnage and distress should a healthy, resourceful man like himself, who has always had so little of what he has craved, not become a little richer.

This unusual (if not unique) novel is set in County Meath in Ireland in 1348, the Black Death has caused devastation among the Norman/English settlers/occupiers who dominate the small villages and towns, while leaving the native Gaels seemingly untouched and encouraging their return to prominence.

The book opens with a minor Anglo-Normal nobleman (Sir Osprey de Flunkl) and a group of three retainers (of dubious loyalty): William – an educated Gael translator and negotiator, Harold who provides more of the muscle as well as increasingly religious/moral challenge, and a young boy Saint John whose other-worldly nature is only increased by the consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms. De Flunkl is taking advantage of the chaos and other’s misfortune to acquire large tracts of land cheaply – an enterprise which Harold in particular finds of increasingly dubious morality.

Their next stop is the village of Nobber – however that town is in the midst of its own particular form of chaos. The town’s mayor has been murdered by the villagers in a plague-induced panic and an unnamed (other than stolen identities – Ambrosio - or nicknames – Big Cat) and evil interloper has effectively taken control of the village. That man (aided by Colca the village farrier whose marriage to a trader Gael Alannah has not really curbed his own bestiality or lightened his moral darkness) promises to cover up their murder if they obey him. He imposes a curfew/isolation regime (he says to stop the plague spreading but also having the advantage of allowing him to pursue his nefarious aims and those of his body-stealing master (Charles de Fonteroy) whose key aim seems to be to grind up bones to make a powder to trade with the Gaels who believe it has magic powers. Other village characters include Colca’s mother Raghnailt, Big Cat’s drunken lover Mary, a wandering shepherd Conn who is in love with another villager but is trapped by the curfew in the house of an old widow, a nearby cleft-lipped Witch, a traveler looking to take advantage of the chaos himself by acquiring his own Noah’s ark of stolen animals, a mysterious child much taken to drawing symbolic graffiti, a woman seemingly unaware that her husband and baby have died and so on.

Threaded throughout the book are a series of recurring images which range from: the mystical (a young fox following events at a distance); to the beautiful (butterflies offering a sign of continuing nature and beauty among the carnage); to the a horrible (a cross covered in dying crows and seemingly acting as some form of omen)’ to the almost farcical (a group of Gaels throwing rats at any Normans/English they spot).

And this mix is reproduced in much of the language and description which veers from the graphic and grotesque to often beautiful use of language; and in the dialogue which interposes archaic and highfalutin speech with graphic and profane insults – in a way which is reminiscent of Monty Python or Blackadder (but with added sex and violence).

The characters themselves are confused at their own speech:

“Full of volubility from the story she has been ceaselessly telling, her words are still excessively poetical. She is long drunk with their frisson, the words cracking against one another for days, breeding new, expressive images, and she is still somewhat dazed by the tapestry of her own narration, full of thick metaphor and rich meaning”

No attempt is made to feel that the villagers lack of breeding or education should restrict their thoughts. Towards the book’s end as Raghnailt tries to prevent the villagers murdering Colca and reflects on their mob mentality as well as their inclusion/exclusion of her and her son, for example she thinks in the middle of the mayhem:

“Collectivity is a shimmering apex, an emergent property, always poised on the edge of existence, always ready to storm and enclose some new centre, always ready to become it; and yet at the very moment of its appearance it is already beginning to disperse, the pieces hurling apart”

For a very enthusiastic and articulate review of the book by a reviewer and brilliant write of short-stories David Haydon (shortlisted for the 2018 Republic of Consciousness Prize when I was a judge) see this link

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

By contrast and rather deliciously the Irish Times (whose view of the influences is “a cross between a medieval picaresque, a children’s adventure story and one of the “historical” Carry On films”, the book “occupies the intersection of a Venn diagram nobody even knew existed. ”

It also concludes (not entirely unreasonably) “Fagan is a skilled storyteller with a rich command of language and rare comedic flair. One hopes he is able to put his considerable talents to more constructive use in future.”

My own view is somewhere in the middle and reflects the reaction of William to the cross of crows

“I do not know what it intends to portray …... but whatever it is that it does portray, it portrays it very mightily. It does not fit into anything, though it does at the same time remind me of everything”

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wild, anarchic and comic in a very black way, and when it was published last year the author can't possibly have envisaged the contagion we are now dealing with, which rather uncannily echoes the plague-struck 14th century Ireland in which the book is set.

At the start of the book we meet a young Norman knight, the exotically named Osprey de Flunkl, and his three followers/servants as they travel across Ireland on a mission to acquire the rights to land which is badly afflicted by the plague - this mission reminded me a little of Gogol's Dead Souls. Their quest takes them to the small town of Nobber, which initially seems almost deserted, the handful of visible characters all showing various signs of madness. The rest of the population are locked into their houses in an extreme form of social distancing. It emerges that de Flunkl's band is not the only one exploiting the plague for nefarious profit - there is also an impostor acting as mayor and the village is raided by marauding Gaels.

I could attempt to describe more of the plot, but any attempt to describe such a surreal anarchic book seems somewhat futile. For all that, it was an enjoyable and entertaining read...

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounded up.

What a wild, strange trip it's been! Fagan's assured debut novel abounds with imagination and gorgeous, precise prose, indelible characters, and some much needed deadpan humor amongst even more medieval grotesquerie. I usually have a very low tolerance for such, especially any violence against animals - and this does contain a truly horrific scene involving a beloved horse - but somehow Fagan ameliorates these by the basic humanity of his actors and their plight, surviving as best they can the plague year of 1348.

I might have enjoyed a stronger through-line - this at times seems like only slightly connected short stories, and often characters recur so much further along than their initial introductions, that one is hard pressed to situate them once again (wish I'd read it on Kindle, so I could have used the search feature!) . But this is so idiosyncratically sui generis that these are only minor quibbles. I will definitely be checking out Fagan's short story collection Hostages soon, and eagerly anticipate his next offering also.

[Ends of the Word · Rating 3 out of 5]

“What the heck have I just read?” This is hardly my usual reaction to a book, but it doesn’t seem out of place for Oisín Fagan’s debut novel. Nominally, “Nobber” is a historical novel set in Ireland during the Great Plague of 1348. That said, the landscape, ravaged by the Black Death and marauding Gaels, gives the book that timeless, apocalyptic feel typical of dystopian fiction. At the start of the novel, we meet one Osprey de Flunkl who, taking advantage of the panic induced by the advancing sickness, sets out to appropriate swathes of land through fraudulent contractual transactions. He is accompanied in his dubious quest by the strong but surprisingly sensitive Harold, the intellectual William of Roscrea, interpreter of the Gaelic tongue, and Saint John of Barrow, a sort of Holy Fool, although, admittedly, less holy than fool.

On a hot Irish summer’s morning this ragtag band makes its way to the small town of Nobber. Flunkl et al however are hardly the only people who have set their sights on the settlement. Following the murder of the mayor and his family, another “outsider” – a certain Ambrosio known affectionately as “Big Cat” by his common law wife - has already usurped leadership of the town with the help of Colca, a local farrier with a propensity for unnatural congress with goats, geese and horses. Bands of Gaels are also threatening to attack the town. These characters converge on Nobber and it is no spoiler to reveal that this will not end well.

How best to describe this novel? Imagine watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail whilst under the effects of some devilish drug. The funny passages seem funnier, the raunchy passages seem raunchier, and the darker parts of the novel seem as black as hell. The high-faluting mock-archaic dialogue, particularly the exchanges between De Flunkl and his men, can be side-splitting. Other scenes are nothing short of revolting. Then suddenly one comes across poetical passages which read like a ray of sunshine through a rain-cloud. As the novel progresses, it becomes more nightmarish. Someone nails several crows to a cruciform structure – some sort of dire warning perhaps? A desperate young mother loses her wits watching her baby die of hunger and her husband die of drink. An old man who has lost his family to the plague digs his own grave and buries himself alive with the help of travelling salesman Monsieur Hacquelebacq. And every so often gangs of Gaels appear and unleash mayhem and peltings of live rats.

Fagan has allegedly stated that he has not included an acknowledgments section, because he does not want to associate people he loves with an “evil book” such as Nobber. Such statements make me suspect a marketing ploy, an attempt to attract attention to the book by naming it as the next “cursed” read. At the same time, Fagan does have a point. With the dead literally piling up, the novel becomes ever more nihilistic. One starts to wonder whether there is any “message” behind all the deaths and violence portrayed, whether there is any “meaning” to the increasingly surreal vignettes. The real punch to the guts comes when the reader realizes that the whole point of the novel is that there’s no point at all.

At the end, the townspeople try to find a scapegoat to assume responsibility for all their suffering. They know that they’re wrong, but blaming somebody for the evil which has assailed Nobber helps to impose logic and meaning onto a tragedy which seems senseless. Ultimately, the questions which the novel raises relate to the perennial mysteries of suffering and evil. Why has the disease claimed so many lives, including so many innocent ones? Why have some of the more evil characters been spared? Nobber refuses to venture a reply to these troubling queries and ultimately offers no respite to the doom and gloom.

3.5*

Head to https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20... for an illustrated version of the review, together with a playlist which includes folk metal and a toe-tapping medieval drinking song.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heavy on the words and the language. No deep meaning but what raises it's head instead, is the great ridiculousness of living and dying with no control whatsoever.

[Dax · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was pretty wild. The novel is set during the bubonic plague of mid 14th Century, in a town called Nobber. People are holed up in their homes (sound familiar?), and as their relatives start to die, it seems their mental health comes into question as well (sound familiar?). Then we've got a handful of people trying to take advantage of the situation for their personal gain. That's about all I know.

This is a dark humor type of story, with some grotesque scenes, a little hint of magical realism, and people who like to talk dirty to one another. I have no idea what this one is really about. All I know is that the prose is excellent, there are a handful of scenes that left a strong impression on me (the forest burial with the fox, anyone?), and that Fagan is an author of which to take note.

A novel that, once you finish, will make you ask, "what the hell was that all about?" but will sear itself in your memory for a while longer. I'm not sure if I even liked it that much, but I was certainly impressed by it. Strong three stars.

"The corpses are hidden, but they seep into the living, the false shades amongst them. There are not enough hands to bury them any more. There is no more society, no more family. Society is slack, full of hypocrisy. It is gone. There is only this mob, burgeoning, becoming one."

[Vaso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Νόμπερ, Ιρλανδία, 14ος αιώνας μ.Χ.
Ο Όσπρευ ντε Φλουνκλ, οδήγει τους υπηρέτες του στο Νόμπερ, του οποίου τις γαίες σκοπεύει να εξαγοράσει, αλλά δεν γνωρίζει ότι στο χωριο η πανούκλα έχει τον πρώτο λόγο. Η απαγόρευση της κυκλοφορίας που επιβλήθηκε με συνοπτικές διαδικασίες από κάποιον που έχει αναλάβει τη διακυβέρνηση της περιοχής, έχει οδηγήσει τους κατοίκους σε έναν ατέλειωτο απολογισμο-παραλογισμό για ορισμένους. Η πραγματικότητα του θανάτου μπερδεύεται με τις παραισθήσεις του μυαλού, κι οι άνθρωποι, προσπαθούν να επιζήσουν, όταν όλα γύρω τους πεθαίνουν.
Οι χαρακτήρες του βιβλίου μας μεταφέρουν ακριβώς την αίσθηση αυτού του απόκοσμου σκηνικού, αυξάνοντας την αίσθηση της κλειστοφοβίας και της παράνοιας όλο και περισσότερο κι οι εικόνες με τα κοράκια που περιμένουν να αρχίσουν τη "φιέστα" τους, εντείνουν την αίσθηση ακόμη περισσότερο.
Γραφή σχεδόν θεατρική που παραπαίει ανάμεσα στο δράμα και την φαρσοκωμωδία, σε βάζει να σκεφτείς την επιλεκτικότητα της ασθένειας να προσβάλει τους καλούς, ενώ αρκετοί από τους κακούς της υπόθεσης, να βγαίνουν αλωβητοι.
Ιδιαίτερο ανάγνωσμα, που γράφτηκε το 2019, πολύ πριν βιώσουμε μια πανδημία στην πραγματικότητα.

"Κι όμως, υπάρχουν κάποιες μικρές στιγμές που η συλλογικότητα γίνεται ολότητα, και τότε δεν της λείπει το παραμικρό. Τότε δεν έχει ανάγκη τίποτε πέρα από τον εαυτό της - μπορεί πάντα να προσαυξηθεί ή να ελαττωθεί, χωρίς να μεταβληθεί η τελειότητά της. Είναι όμως βραχύβια, αναλίσκεται μέσα στην ίδια της τη φλόγα, αλλά για μια μικρή στιγμή, σελαγίζει σαν δεύτερος ήλιος."


"[...] δυο-τρεις νύξεις, κι αμέσως ξεχύθηκε η βία μέσα απ'τους ανθρώπους. Πάντα την έχουν μέσα τους. Το μόβο που θέλει είναι να ξέρεις ποιες λέξεις την απελευθερώνουν, τι να πεις για να της δώσεις κατεύθυνση. Το πιο δύσκολο είναι πάντα το να τη σταματήσεις..."

3,5 αστέρια

[Effie Saxioni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είναι 1348,η Ιρλανδία μαστίζεται από τον Μαύρο θάνατο - βέβαια δεν γνωρίζει το όνομά του ακόμα, και στο Νόμπερ οι κάτοικοι διατάσσονται σε κατ'οίκον περιορισμό.Οι πόρτες και τα παράθυρα σφραγίζονται, τα πτώματα σωρρεύονται, απατεώνες, κοράκια και "κοράκια" λυμαίνονται τις περιουσίες και τις ψυχές νεκρών και ζωντανών, ενώ η απελπισία οδηγεί στην τρέλα όσους δεν έχουν πεθάνει ακόμη από την αρρώστια.
Κέλτες και Νορμανδοί είναι στα κάγκελα, μια μητέρα αφηνιάζει όταν το στήθος της δεν βγάζει γάλα για το νεογέννητό της, ένας Γατούλης, μια φάλαινα, μια κοινωνία σε παράκρουση όπου δεν εντοπίζει πια τη γραμμή που χωρίζει την πραγματικότητα από τις παραισθήσεις, δυσωδία, μύγες, απόκληροι, μεσαίωνας μέσα και έξω από τα σπίτια και τις ψυχές, απατεώνες ολκής, και όλα αυτά ενόσω ο ντε Φλουνκ�� και η αλλοπρόσαλλη κουστωδία του είναι προ των πυλών.
Σκληρό και ευφυές, ταυτόχρονα περίεργο όμως, έχει στιγμές που πιάνεις τον εαυτό σου να γελάει με τα χάλια μιας κατάστασης που μοιάζει δυστοπική, αλλά, η ζωή και η πανδημία τα τελευταία χρόνια, μας δίδαξαν πως, σε ό,τι αφορά τις δυστοπίες, η ζωή έχει έχει περισσότερη και πιο γόνιμη φαντασία! 😂
Μια πολύ καλή ιστορία, πολλή τροφή για σκέψη.
5/5 ⭐

[Χρυσόστομος Τσαπραΐλης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το μυθιστόρημα λαμβάνει χώρα στην Ιρλανδία του 1348 με τη βουβωνική πανώλη να σαρώνει τον τόπο. Χωρικό επίκεντρο είναι ο οικισμός Νόμπερ και το γύρω του περιβάλλον, στο οποίο ζουν ή συγκλίνουν οι (ίσως υπερβολικά) πολυάριθμοι χαρακτήρες του έργου (ντόπιοι, ταξιδιώτες, Κέλτες, αγύρτες). Το βιβλίο είναι εν μέρει κοινωνικοπολιτική και πολιτισμική κριτική, εν μέρει συμβολισμός, αλληγορία και παραμυθένια θρησκευτικότητα, εν μέρει μελέτη επί της ανθρώπινης φύσης σε περίοδο βαθιάς απειλής. Αυτά μέσα από μια γλώσσα πλούσια που σφύζει με υποδόριο χιούμορ, και ταλαντεύεται από την ωμή σωματικότητα και τη βαθιά υλική διάσταση της φρίκης (υπάρχουν περιγραφές ακραίας έντασης και λεπτομέρειας) ως μια γλαφυρή λυρικότητα που αγγίζει τα όρια του υπερβατικού και του μυστικισμού.

Το βιβλίο δεν περιέχει κάποια πολυσχιδή ή στιβαρή πλοκή με την παραδοσιακή έννοια. Αυτό που βλέπουμε είναι η αλληλεπίδραση των χαρακτήρων (με οπτικές γωνίες που αλλάζουν από κεφάλαιο σε κεφάλαιο) με την πανδημία που έχει ξεσπάσει. Κάποιοι προσπαθούν να εξιχνιάσουν την προέλευση και φύση της (Είναι μεταφυσική; Έχει πνευματική, τιμωρητική προέλευση, είναι φορέας ηθικής; Πώς μεταδίδεται, πώς μπορεί να ανακοπεί η εξάπλωσή της;), άλλοι βρίσκουν ευκαιρία να εκμεταλλευτούν την κατάρρευση των δομών που αυτή έχει επιφέρει, πολλοί φιλοσοφούν εν μέσω της αποκαλυπτικής αυτής κατάστασης, κάποιοι αναζητούν τη λήθη (προσωρινή ή μη) και υπάρχουν κι αυτοί που προσπαθούν να επαναδιαρθρώσουν τις διαπροσωπικές τους σχέσεις. Με πρόσφατη την εμπειρία του COVID αρκετές από τις καταστάσεις θα φανούν κάπως γνώριμες. Υπόψιν, όμως, το βιβλίο κυκλοφόρησε το 2019, πριν την έναρξη της συγκεκριμένης πανδημίας.

Το Νόμπερ έχει αύρα θεατρικού έργου και όχι μόνο εξαιτίας της υπερβολής και του στόμφου που χαρακτηρίζει πολλές από τις σκέψεις και τα λόγια των χαρακτήρων. Παρότι ξέρουμε πού και πότε διαδραματίζεται, η αίσθηση που έχουμε είναι ενός κόσμου αποκομμένου από τον χρόνο. Σ' αυτό συντελεί και ο ενεστώτας της κύριας αφήγησης (που αρχικά με ξένισε, μα ευτυχώς συνηθίζεται) που εδραιώνει τα δρώμενα σε ένα διαρκές τώρα. Η επιδημία, παρότι ενεργός φορέας ιστορίας, έχει διαταράξει και τις χρονικές δομές (μαζί με τις κοινωνικές, πολιτικές και οικονομικές) με αποτέλεσμα την αίσθηση πως το χωριό και οι άνθρωποι βρίσκονται σε κάποιου είδους θεατρική σκηνή με χρονικούς κανόνες διαφορετικούς από τους συνηθισμένους.

Πέρα από τον χρονικό ίλιγγο, υπάρχει μια ηθελημένη, σχεδόν παιχνιδιάρικη ασάφεια όσον αφορά τα σύνορα υλικού και πνευματικού (ή φυσικού και μεταφυσικού). Το βιβλίο περιέχει αρκετές οριακές καταστάσεις (όπως το τερατώδες «γλυπτό» με τα κοράκια στην είσοδο του χωριού, μια παράξενη κουφάλα-μήτρα στον κορμό ενός δέντρου, τα επίμονα χτυπήματα στις πόρτες του χωριού κατά την καραντίνα) οι οποίες δεν έχουν μια απαραίτητα τελεσίδικη εξήγηση.

Ενδιαφέρον έχουν τέλος και οι Κέλτες με την τόσο παράξενη συμπεριφορά τους ως μια αλλόκοσμη, σχεδόν μη ανθρώπινη παρουσία, φαινομενικά απρόσβλητοι από την αρρώστια και τον κυρίαρχο πολιτισμό (κάτι που ίσως δεν είναι τελείως ασύνδετο, τουλάχιστον στον νου κάποιων από τους χαρακτήρες του βιβλίου).

Δυο ενδεικτικά αποσπάσματα:

«Εκείνη η νύχτα ήταν τόσο καθαρή που τα αστέρια καθρεφτίζονταν στην επιφάνεια του νερού, και το νερό ήτανε τόσο ακίνητο που ένιωθα σαν να έπλεα σ’ έναν κόσμο φτιαγμένο από το σκούρο γυαλί των ωραίων καθεδρικών, σ’ έναν κόσμο-καθρέφτη, και πως στη λίμνη ζούσαν χιλιάδες μικροσκοπικά στραφταλιστά όντα. Πως ήταν κι η ίδια ζωντανή, και οι άσπρες σπίθες χόρευαν, χόρευαν, και ήταν σαν να με καλούσαν, κι εγώ ήμουν τόσο ερωτευμένος με τον κόσμο, που ήξερα πως δεν θα ήταν εύκολο πράγμα να πεθάνω, κι όμως έπεσα στο νερό, γιατί η ντροπή μου ήταν μεγάλη, και ήταν σαν να είχα βουτήξει μέσα στ’ αστέρια».

Όταν η συλλογικότητα υπάρχει, αναρωτιέσαι γιατί δεν υπάρχει πάντα. Ο όχλος είναι ουδέτερος και δεν παρέχει μεγάλη παρηγοριά. Τα άτομα, βέβαια, δεν είναι αληθινά, το ξέρει αυτό η Ράιναλτ, το άτομο είναι απλώς το τμήμα στο οποίο έχεις εγκλωβιστεί, το πιο αύταρκες κομμάτια ενός τυχαίου όλου. Κι όμως υπάρχουν κάποιες μικρές στιγμές που η συλλογικότητα γίνεται ολότητα, και τότε δεν της λείπει το παραμικρό. Τότε δεν έχει ανάγκη τίποτε πέρα από τον εαυτό της· μπορεί πάντα να προσαυξηθεί ή να ελαττωθεί, χωρίς να μεταβληθεί η τελειότητά της. Είναι όμως, βραχύβια, αναλίσκεται μέσα στην ίδια της τη φλόγα, αλλά, για μια στιγμή, σελαγίζει σαν δεύτερος ήλιος.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read Nobber, I found myself highlighting passages that dealt with two ideas: madness and symbols.

The year is 1348 and the Black Death has reached Ireland. The village of Nobber lies in County Meath and has fallen to the plague. All the authority figures are dead or absent and a sinister figure, Charles de Fonteroy has taken over. De Fonteroy is mostly absent, but he has a deputy who is present but evades naming (sometimes Big Cat, sometimes Ambrosio). A cast of other village characters is involved, but I won’t list them all here as that would spoil the fun. And there is a large amount of fun to be had here, which struck me as odd as I read it given it is about the plague and given that I read it as COVID-19 is ramping up globally. How can you enjoy a book about a plague and enjoy it when you are in the middle of your own pandemic?

As we start the book, we meet a young man, the marvellously named Sir Osprey de Flunkl, who, along with his retinue of 3 other vividly drawn characters is travelling the land acquiring large amounts of properties in ways that would not be regarded as fair. Around both retinue and village, the local Gaels pose an ongoing threat. In the opening of the book, they confront de Flunkl and his team and throw rats (presumably plague bearing) at them. Immediately, you know you are in for something of a wild ride.

There is a lot of talk of madness. The plague brings madness, the curfew in the village (enforced by a bizarre character called Colca) brings madness. I write this confined to my house in a coronavirus lockdown, but I can still leave the house for essentials and I still have windows. In Nobber, the curfew is total and Colca has boarded up all the windows: the people sit in darkness as their families gradually succumb to the plague.

”’You have gone mad,’ she says. ‘We have not loved you enough; it is our fault.’
‘Of course I have gone mad. The world is at war, no?’ Alannah says. ‘But we each have our own little apocalypse; everyone has their own one.’”

There are also lots of symbols throughout the book. There is a fox with green eyes, there are pink butterflies that land on people’s cheeks, there is a strange wooden cruciform covered in crows and wearing a peasant’s hat. These symbols recur through the book but are never explicitly explained.

“The world is dying, and when the world dies, its magic and its spirits evaporate before the fleshier parts of the world do desist. Still, everything is full of symbols, they multiply and persist about us, but even so they’re all dead.”

Perhaps what makes the book entertaining in the midst of all the death and violence is the language. Think Monty Python. Or, more recently, Blackadder. There is beautiful language and dry, dark humour mixed in with grandiose speech and spectacular insults.

In the end, I am not sure where I went, but I did enjoy the ride.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This bloody and plague-ridden tale is a whole lot of (dark) fun.
Just north of the Wicklow Mountains in the mid-1300s a young teenage nobelman, Osprey de Flunkl is buying up land at knockdown prices — and expects to do the same when he reaches the town of Nobber. But Nobber, in the grip of the Black Death, already has someone who is trying to cash in on the Pestilence, a mysterious naked blacksmith, wearing only an apron, has imposed a lockdown and told people to remain boarded up in their houses.
De Flunkl and his three companions enter the town (“overflowing with death”) only to be faced with a large cross made up of dozens of crows, nailled to it, some of them still alive. The "thing of crows" suitably spooks them and sets the scene for a riotous and highly entertaining story, with its grisly descriptions interspersed by Rowan Atkinson-esque dialogue.
A woman tells de Flunkl:

I hate your boyish face; it fills me with disgust. I will retch momentarily as it would seem I am forced to regard it.

The novel opens with a bizarre slanging match between de Flunkl’s men and a band of Gaels, who brag aggressively about the fertility and large labia of their womenfolk.
Fagan certainly seems to be a writer to watch. This is far from being a serious piece, but his command of language and comedic flare puts me in mind of Benjamin Myers. High praise indeed.

[Tanvi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Clearly the author is a gifted writer but this book was not my cup of tea. The story was shite, the characters even worse. Entire segments of it entirely impossible to get through without wanting to toss the book into the closest bin. There were moments where I thought I could keep going because they were written so beautifully but then we'd go right back to the very very bad parts. Also, reading this made me feel as though I'd never be clean again. Yuck. The people who suffered most in this tale of bubonic plage and isolation were me, the reader, and every woman who was unlucky enough to be written by this author.

Funnily, it was charming to read about a town under isolation during these times. We love happy coincidences.

[Gary Homewood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A noble and 3 servants travelling through plague ridden 14th C Ireland stop in the town of Nobber. Delirious, often unsettlingly visceral, cruelty, madness and hallucinatory imagery. The thing of crows will haunt me.

[Jim Hanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oisin Fagan has a remarkable gift for language, as was first seen in the excellent Hostages, his short story collection. In Nobber, his debut novel, he creates an amazing rag tag bunch of characters with a story set in Ireland 1348 during the plague. The writing is terrific, the setting of Nobber as the small town everyone converges in is perfect, there is sly humour on every page. Highly recommended.

[Jo O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monty Python-esque madness.

Set in a remote Irish settlement in the throes of a plague, and explores one day in the many inhabitants and travellers who pass through.
Full of loss, black humour, and history.

You can see Fagan’s roots as a short story writer, with the 6 or 7 different little stories whirling around each other towards a conclusion.

[Ciaran McLarnon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark and original story which vividly describes the enterprise of a small band of 14th century conmen during the plague in Ireland. As they arrive in Nobber, Co Meath, they come across a pair of even less scrupulous deviants holding the town hostage. The story is very well told with a range of the most unusual characters none of which have any respect for each other. Prepare to sit uncomfortably as this wonderful tale unfolds.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoughts coming shortly

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, so lockdown could have been a lot worse.

[Sabonde · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went from being delighted with this book to despising it. It starts with beautiful prose, humour and quirky characters before quickly becoming a mad wandering fever dream of poorly connected chapters. The promise of the storyline decays quickly in the heat of the confused writing and it takes a final gasp with a chapter that is odd and meaningless thus denying us any actual point!

The treatment of women in the book greatly bothered me by the mid way point and only got worse. I understand that women were not treated well in this age (1348), but it starts to feel like the author is enjoying the debasement of the female characters who are constantly called degrading names and reduced to nothing more than sexual objects for the men. The fact that this happens so frequently and that it does not add ANYTHING to the plot, means that it starts to feel sinister.

The brief moments of humour and occasional gorgeous lines of prose were not enough to resuscitate this corpse of a book!

[G1001XD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nobbled my way through this book finally. I’ve realised I love a gory and violent medieval plot because it always hints at something deeper and more existential about morality and cultural beliefs.

Very much the case with this and I really enjoyed its Irish setting as there’s a whole lot more to unpack with regards to settlers, the Gaels, property, land etc.

Also really enjoyed jumping from different characters as it really created a sense of communal unease, with various people reckoning with illness, fear, folklore, madness in differing ways.

All in all very good and glad I finally got round to reading it!

[Bram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightfully odd collision of Gogol, Krasznahorkai and Cervantes. Nobber is dense and difficult to read, but pocked with some stark raving bonkers characters and almost Python-esque set pieces that make for rollicking reprieves. To be honest, I really don't know what to make of this book. In many ways, it should be absolutely my kind of thing but, ultimately, I struggled to connect. That said, I suspect it's a work of genius. God I'm confused.
Either 3, 4 or 5 starts. Who the hell knows?

[Conor Tannam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violent, chaotic and good fun. Took me longer than it should have to finish it which suggests I wasn’t totally sold on it.

[Vassilis MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+/5*


Στην Ιρλανδία του 14ου αι. η οποία μαστίζεται από την πανώλη, μια δονκιχωτική συντροφιά τεσσάρων ανδρών κατευθύνεται προς το Νόμπερ, μια πόλη της οποίας η κακόφημη αύρα προηγείται κατά πολύ της γεωγραφικής της θέσης. Επικεφαλής της ετερόκλητης συντροφιάς άσπονδων φίλων, ένας νεαρός τυχοδιώκτης που εκμεταλλεύεται την επιδημιολογική συγκυρία για να αγοράσει γαίες αντί πινακίου φακής.

Κανείς τους όμως δεν μπορούσε να φανταστεί τι κρύβεται πραγματικά πίσω από τα σφαλιστά πορτοπαράθυρα του Νόμπερ και πόσο βαθιά και αμετάκλητη δυστυχία κρύβει η αποφορά του θανάτου που σέρνεται σε κάθε γωνιά του. Κάθε στοιχείο συγγραφικής προοικονομίας θαρρείς και σφίγγει όλο και περισσότερο μια αόρατη μέγγενη που συνθλίβει τις πιθανότητες επιβίωσής τους.

Μια διήγηση που ξεκινά ως κράμα Στάινμπεκ και Μπέκετ, καταλήγει γρήγορα σε μια θεατρική πρόζα που ακροβατεί ανάμεσα σε μεσαιωνική δυστοπία και μαύρη κωμωδία. Το γκροτέσκο συνδυάζεται με τη φρίκη, την ωμή βία και το σπλάτερ για να δώσει ένα από τα πιο ιδιαίτερα (και ιδιόμορφα) pandemic horror έργα που έχουν πέσει στα χέρια μου. Το Νόμπερ είναι ένας υπερκείμενος, συμβολικός τόπος που δε μαστίζεται απλώς από την πανδημία, αλλά την αναδίδει σε κάθε έκφανσή του.

Προφητικά γραμμένο πριν την πανδημία του COVID-19, το βιβλίο αποτυπώνει ανατριχιαστικά τα ταπεινά ένστικτα που αναδύονται σε τέτοιες συγκυρίες, τις συνέπειες του εγκλεισμού, την κακοποιητική συμπεριφορά σε βάρος των γυναικών, τον οπορτουνισμό και πολλά ακόμα, περιβεβλημένα την αύρα ενός Κέλτικου μεσαιωνικού παραμυθιού.

Η θεατρική πένα πιθανόν να κουράσει κάποιους, το ίδιο και τα πρώτα κεφάλαια με τη χαλαρή δομή και νοηματική αλληλουχία. Οι πειστικότατοι χαρακτήρες προσθέτουν στην αληθοφάνεια (αν και δεν είναι αυτό το ζητούμενο του έργου), ενώ σίγουρα λείπει η αναγωγή των πράξεων των ηρώων σε ένα υπέρτερο και πιο οικουμενικό μοτίβο, ώστε να μην μοιάζουν ενίοτε με καρικατούρες.

Όλα αυτά όμως δεν υπονομεύουν το γεγονός ότι ο νεαρός συγγραφέας είναι ένας σπουδαίος γραφιάς και μας παραδίδει ένα έργο πρωτότυπης λογοτεχνίας, με αδυναμίες αλλά -επιτέλους- βγαλμένο από ένα λογοτεχνικό καμίνι μη μαζικής παραγωγής.

[Nick Garbutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oisin Fagan is an exciting young Irish Writer with an unsettling taste for gore. Nobber, named after the small town in Co Meath was his first novel and caused a stir.
It is set in the 14th Century during a plague and tells the story of a young Norman noble and his retinue exploiting the disease to buy up parcels of land on the cheap from survivors.
It contains unsparing depictions of the disease , of gruesome deaths and unspeakable depravity.
Reading it has a strange hallucinatory effect. An arresting, unforgettable debut, much better than his second novel Eden’s Shore.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really wanted to enjoy this however could just not get my head around it.

[Conor O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant.

"Property is vacant, more than we could have ever imagined when we began this quest, and a claimant may lodge his suit with the only remaining sovereign power, which is, on all appearances, and in many cases, the unprotesting dead."