Treacle Walker
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize
An extraordinary, “playful, moving, and wholly remarkable” (The Guardian) coming-of-age novel filled with myth and magic from one of England's greatest living writers.
An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock is trying to make sense of the world. Living alone in an old house, he spends his time reading comic books, collecting birds’ eggs, and playing with marbles. When one day a rag-and-bone man called Treacle Walker appears on a horse and cart, offering a cure-all medicine, a mysterious friendship develops and the young boy is introduced to a world beyond his wildest imagination.
Luminous, evocative, and sparely told, Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth, folklore, and the stories we tell ourselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
English author Garner, known primarily for children's fantasies such as Red Shift, offers a hypnotic and surreal adventure in this Booker-shortlisted outing. Joe Coppock, a child of unspecified age, wears a patch over his lazy eye and spends his time reading comic books. One day, he hears a rag-and-bone man named Treacle Walker calling through the window and trades Treacle his pajamas and a lamb bone for a pot and a donkey stone. After Joe accidentally gets some of the paste from the pot on his good eye, he has a series of strange encounters, including one with Thin Amren, a naked man in a bog, who explains how Joe can see magic. He finds the power distressing and asks for guidance from Treacle, who often speaks in riddles. As details from Joe's life bleed into his comic books, he longs for his previous, simpler existence, and near the end he takes a bold fantastical leap in hopes of returning. Garner blends accessible prose with elliptical references to Northern England mythology ("put the clout to the glamourie and use the glim that's in the mirlingoes"), which will send curious readers down a rabbit hole. This is alluring and elusive in equal measure.
