Description: "The work of a very fine storyteller indeed." - The Times (London) "History, in this novel's presentation, isn't a smoothly flowing river; it's clogged, jammed, with all sorts of debris that floats up at unexpected moments. For Barker, the past is most vibrantly - and visibly - alive in language, in the way it seeps into modern usage..."Darkmans" is for readers who enjoy nimble wordplay; for those patient enough to wait as the characters' lives slowly intersect and draw closer to an ensemble encounter." - Los Angeles Times Book Review "Hilarious and erudite, spooky and unconventional, "Darkmans" is a dazzling achievement. I haven't read this year's winner of the Man Booker Prize, but I suspect Nicola Barker was robbed." - Washington Post "A whopping literary hit. . . fat and sassy, vulgar and brainy. . . . This appears to be Barker's point: however we may try to pave over the past, it keeps seeping through the sleek surfaces of modern life." - Salon.com "Once you're in the grip of this broad, funny, deeply strange book--once you and "Darkmans" are grappling with each other--neither you nor the novel is likely to let go. . . . To suggest that this dazzling, complex novel has anything quite as conventional as a plot would be misleading. . . . Darkmans is a rich exploration of our own layered present." - New York Times Book Review "In this epic, delirium-inducing Mad Tea Party ride, we're parachuted into the lives of some eccentric English everymen...it's a novel like no other--hilarious, bizarre, and possible mind-altering. A-" - Entertainment Weekly "The book of the year for me. . . . It's a novel of prestigious craft, energy, risk, sleight of hand and linguistic generosity and acuity, and a funny, faster-than-virtual take on what's contemporary and what's history and how the twain meet and never will meet." - Ali Smith, The Observer "The Man Booker Prize is often criticised for being too serious and elitist. My gift to the naysayers is Nicola Barker's Darkmans, a tour-de-force of contemporary life set in Ashford, Kent. When it was long-listed, the writer and journalist D J Taylor described Darkmans as a "left-field 838-page weird out"; and I celebrated. Barker is a comic genius. Her imagination is incendiary.. . . . Darkmans is the novel of the decade." - Ruth Scurr, The Daily Telegraph "This epic comedy, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, demands total immersion. And those willing to take the plunge will be rewarded by its ferocious humor and exuberant wordplay. . . . A feat to behold." - Booklist (starred review) "Barker's surreal and satirical vision of modern life...a whirligig version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair." - Financial Times

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