Author(s): Benjamin Myers

Novel | Historical | England | Dystopia, Science Fiction and Fantasy | Goldsmiths Prize short list 2023

**Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2023** **Chosen as a book of the year 2023 by The Times, Guardian, Telegraph and New Statesman** 'An epic the north has long deserved' FINANCIAL TIMES 'A sensational piece of storytelling - A singular and significant achievement' GUARDIAN 'Marvellous, artful, enchanted' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Cements Myers's standing as one of our finest, and most deftly imaginative, writers' I NEWS

The triumphant new novel from the Walter Scott Prize-winning author of The Gallows Pole and The Offing Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage their dreams, desires, connections and communities.

Review: It's been a while since I've reacted as emotionally to a novel ... An epic the north has long deserved: ambitious, dreamy, earthy, dark, welcoming and not ... There are readers like me who will not just enjoy this book but feel deeply grateful for its existence * FINANCIAL TIMES *
A saint's-eye song of praise to what the city of Durham is and has been ... A kaleidoscopic novel of the North East of England, through five eras from Anglo-Saxon times to the present, brilliantly splintered and coloured and spun -- FRANCIS SPUFFORD
A millennium-spanning polyphonic flight through history ... Myers creates characters and voices so absorbing that when the timeline jumps forward you are reluctant to leave them, only for the next protagonist to become the centre of your world until it is time to move on again. A phenomenal achievement, Cuddy is by some distance my novel of 2023 * NEW EUROPEAN *
A visionary epic which covers a millennium of English history and employs poetry and prose, playscript and pastiche to trace the story of St Cuthbert, the building of Durham Cathedral and the contemporary northern landscape * GUARDIAN, Best books of the year *
This bold, experimental novel, which uses poetry as much as prose, won this year's Goldsmiths prize * THE TIMES, Books of the Year *
A polyphonic hymn to a very specific landscape and its people. At the same time, it deepens his standing as an arresting chronicler of a broader, more mysterious seam of ancient folklore that unites the history of these isles as it's rarely taught * OBSERVER *
A visionary epic which covers a millennium of English history and employs poetry and prose, playscript and pastiche to trace the story of St Cuthbert, the building of Durham Cathedral and the contemporary northern landscape. * GUARDIAN, Books of the Year 2023 *
A genre-blending, millennia-straddling history ... A bold story about faith and nationhood that upends preconceptions of the ''historical novel" * NEW STATESMAN, Books of the Year *
Myers' playful, form- and genre-bending tale about St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ... The author is known for his grasp of language and elegiac take on history and the natural world - all of which are put to excellent use in a novel that spans poetry, prose, historical accounts and more * MARIE CLAIRE, The best books of 2023 *
A dizzyingly inventive retelling of St Cuthbert's life * TELEGRAPH, Books of the Year *Myers chisels a cohesive and engaging portrait of a place laden with history * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *
An absorbingly beautiful book ... There aren't many writers as attuned to the present state of this country and the history and landscape that made it as Myers, who succeeds repeatedly in harnessing time with compassion, kindness and a rare gift for finding the right voice for the right people in the right era * NEW EUROPEAN *