If nobody speaks of remarkable things

• Main Author: McGregor, Jon 1976-
• Other Authors: Vickers, Salley
• Format: Book
• Published: London Bloomsbury 2007
• Subjects: City and town life > Fiction > England, Northern; Modern fiction > Fiction > England, Northern; Life change events > Fiction; City and town life > Fiction
• Online Access: Click Here to View Status and Holdings.
• Item Description: Originally published: c2002; "Includes reading group guide and a new introduction by Salley Vickers"--Cover; Dates of available copies: 2002, 2003, 2007
• Physical Description: 275 p. 20 cm
• ISBN: 0747561575(pbk.); 9780747590071 (pbk.)

"This novel owes as much to poetry as it does to prose. Its opening, an invocation of the life of the city, is strongly reminiscent of Auden's "Night Mail" in its hypnotic portrait of industrialised society An assured debut" - Erica Wagner, "The Times". On a street in a town in the North of England, ordinary people are going through the motions of their everyday existence - street cricket, barbecues, painting windows. A young man is in love with a neighbour who does not even know his name. An old couple make their way up to the nearby bus stop. But then a terrible event shatters the quiet of the early summer evening. That this remarkable and horrific event is only poignant to those who saw it, not even meriting a mention on the local news, means that those who witness it will be altered for ever. Jon McGregor's first novel brilliantly evokes the histories and lives of the people in the street to build up an unforgettable human panorama. Breathtakingly original, humane and moving, "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things" is an astonishing debut. "The work of a burning new talent Jon MacGregor writes like a lyrical angel" - "Daily Mail".