Midland

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2015

An industrial accident in a wire factory and the chance discovery of a birth certificate. Church services held in a ruined swimming pool. An unidentified elephant skull. Midland tells the stories of three young women as they fight to find their feet amidst the accumulated rubble of the twentieth century. From the bombsites of the 1940s to the construction sites of the 1960s and the school halls and decaying tower blocks of the 1980s, Honor Gavin has created an ingenious narrative of one Midlands family that is also a startling, anarchic history of a city. Composed in electric prose that soars and dives, blending keenly observed dialect with urban theory, cinema, farcical digressions and surrealist timekeeping, Midland is a novel out of time but in the middle of everything.

REVIEWS

"To me, reading this book was dream-like as I sequenced between nostalgia and explicitly remembered detail. The narrative scenarios drew me into a believable world that was also a kind of science fiction. I loved the way that Honor played with language, peppering the pages with a wonderful mix of colloquiums and made up words that brought me closer to the heart of the world I was suspended in." - GAVIN TURK, ARTIST & JUDGE FOR THE 2015 GORDON BURN PRIZE

"An original, sparky and fresh voice. Midland makes the female family epic anew and exhilarating." - CHERRY SMYTH, WRITER & CRITIC