Saturday 13 May 2023

"Isaac and the Egg" by Bobby Palmer

Isaac, grief-stricken after the death of his wife, stands on a bridge considering whether to jump, screaming, when he hears an answering scream in the forest. He finds an egg-shaped creature - is it an alien? He takes it home. Over the next few weeks, as he experiences the sharp pains of bereavement, he develops a relationship with the egg. But where does he go to some nights? And what is in the locked room at the top of the house?

On the one hand this a a bizarre story of an impossible creature (the principal film reference is ET; it was interesting that the author references films rather than books; I was thinking Kafka's Metamorphosis). But at the same time this is a gut-wrenching exploration of the emotions aroused by bereavement. 

There are some predictable but hugely poignant twists. The ending is a tear-jerker. 

Very strange but very readable.

Another book about bereavement is Grief is a Thing With Feathers by Max Porter: hugely recommended.

Selected quotes:

  • "Whilst Isaac used to think his life was a rom-com, then a tragedy, now he knows it's a creature-feature." (Ch 3) There are lots of references to films, I spotted no references to books.
  • "He simply vegetates on the sofa in a perpetual state of 1 per cent charged." (Ch 3) It's also very modern.

May 2023; 275 pages


This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God


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