
J
Written by Howard Jacobson
- Shortlisted
- The Man Booker Prize 2014
- Published by Jonathan Cape
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In his dystopian drama, Howard Jacobson has created a thought-provoking love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying
Two people fall in love, not yet knowing where they have come from or where they are going. Kevern doesn’t know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a word starting with a J. It wasn’t then, and isn’t now, the time or place to be asking questions. Ailinn too has grown up in the dark about who she was or where she came from. On their first date Kevern kisses the bruises under her eyes. He doesn’t ask who hurt her. Brutality has grown commonplace. They aren’t sure if they have fallen in love of their own accord, or whether they’ve been pushed into each other’s arms. But who would have pushed them, and why?