Ness
Penguin
Eerie unsettling and hauntingly beautiful a new collaboration from the bestselling creators of Holloway Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood Ness goes beyond what we expect books to do Beyond poetry beyond the word beyond the bomb it is an aftertime song Max Porter Booker longlisted author of Grief is the Thing with FeathersSomewhere on a salt and shingle island inside a ruined concrete structure known as The Green Chapel a figure called The Armourer is leading a ritual with terrible intent But something is coming to stop him Five more than human forms are traversing land sea and time towards The Green Chapel moving to the point where they will converge and become Ness Ness has lichen skin and willow bones Ness is made of tidal drift green moss and deep time Ness has hagstones for eyes and speaks only in birds And Ness has come to take this island back What happens when land comes to life What would it take for land to need to come to life Using word and image the pair have together made a minor modern myth Part novella part prose poem part mystery play in Ness their skills combine to dazzling troubling effect Robert Macfarlane is the author of The Lost Words with Jackie Morris The Old Ways and Underland Stanley Donwood is an artist and the author of Slowly Downward Household Worms and Bad Island
