The Dumb House
(Scottish Classics)
$21.60
- Paperback
224 pages
- Release Date
15 August 2015
Summary
John Burnside’s first novel, his profoundly disturbing and beautifully written story of scientific curiosity gone awry.
As a child, Luke’s mother often tells him the story of the Dumb House, an experiment on newborn babies raised in silence, designed to test the innateness of language.
As Luke grows up, his interest in language and the delicate balance of life and death leads to amateur dissections of small animals - tiny hearts revealed still pumping, as life trickles away. B…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781784870119 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1784870110 |
| Author: | John Burnside |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Vintage Classics |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 224 |
| Release Date: | 15 August 2015 |
| Weight: | 162g |
| Dimensions: | 198mm x 129mm x 15mm |
| Series: | Vintage Classics |
You Can Find This Book In
What They're Saying
Critics Review
“A wonderfully disturbing book–chillingly focused and lyrically amoral with moments of remarkable stillness and beauty. A poetic novel in the best and most troubling sense.”
Compelling reading * Scotsman *A wonderfully disturbing book - chillingly focused and lyrically amoral with moments of remarkable stillness and beauty. A poetic novel in the best and most troubling sense – A. L. KennedyBurnside’s prose is exquisite and he dissects his themes with delicacy to produce a novel resonant with poetic menace * Sunday Times *An exceptionally sinister book… It is the story of Luke, whose experiments into the nature of human language are recounted with all the beguiling reasonableness of the highly intelligent madman… The horror is tempered and fine-tuned by the exceptional beauty of Burnside’s writing… In Luke, Burnside has produced one of the most chilling voices in recent fiction * Times Literary Supplement *My favourite book of the year * Jen Campbell’s vlog *
About The Author
John Burnside
John Burnside was among the most acclaimed writers of his generation. His novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs won numerous awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial, Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and, in 2023, he received the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime’s achievement in literature. In 2011 Black Cat Bone won both the Forward and the T.S. Eliot Prizes for poetry. He died in 2024.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.