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IAMNOWHERE
I take Lolly over to the Illuminated Southcotes. She places her hands on the glass cover and studies the model inside.
“This is lovely.”
“My granddad made it. My dad added to it.”
I slip a twenty pence piece in the slot. I watch Lolly as she watches the miniature people and vehicles move about the model town. Her lips twitch into fleeting smiles at each new scene.
“My dad added this last bit not long before he died,” I say. “Look. Here she comes.”
The tiny figure of a woman holding a baby, no more than half an inch high, runs down from the town, down the beach and into the sea. She doesn’t re-emerge.
John Hathaway is twenty-one years old, a delusional schizophrenic and a murderer.
And now that his father is dead, he’s the only person who knows someone or something has killed four women in the bleak seaside town of Southcotes.
Lolly Quale is drawn into John’s quest for answers, finding a distraction from her own problems through what she sees as their little make-believe mystery game.
And then a fifth body washes up on the beach…
Iain Grant’s third solo novel is a work of philosophical and storytelling trickery, which makes new use of the electronic book format to tell a story so astonishing you literally won’t know where it will take you next.
“This is lovely.”
“My granddad made it. My dad added to it.”
I slip a twenty pence piece in the slot. I watch Lolly as she watches the miniature people and vehicles move about the model town. Her lips twitch into fleeting smiles at each new scene.
“My dad added this last bit not long before he died,” I say. “Look. Here she comes.”
The tiny figure of a woman holding a baby, no more than half an inch high, runs down from the town, down the beach and into the sea. She doesn’t re-emerge.
John Hathaway is twenty-one years old, a delusional schizophrenic and a murderer.
And now that his father is dead, he’s the only person who knows someone or something has killed four women in the bleak seaside town of Southcotes.
Lolly Quale is drawn into John’s quest for answers, finding a distraction from her own problems through what she sees as their little make-believe mystery game.
And then a fifth body washes up on the beach…
Iain Grant’s third solo novel is a work of philosophical and storytelling trickery, which makes new use of the electronic book format to tell a story so astonishing you literally won’t know where it will take you next.
Kindle Edition
First published January 20, 2013
9 people want to read
About the author
Iain Grant
70 books16 followersThere is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
For the author of the Clovenhoof series etc., see Iain Grant.
For the author of the Clovenhoof series etc., see Iain Grant.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 21, 2013
A book that really got under my skin.
Getting right inside the mind of someone who doesn't behave as society expects is slightly uncomfortable. What surprises and shocks a little bit is that John's mind doesn't feel so very different.
The novel is layered in several different ways for us, and the unusual format is quite a treat.
There is a murder mystery at the core of the story, but I found the power of the characters and the atmospheric setting are so absorbing that I really wouldn't have minded if there was NO plot at all.
Cannot recommend highly enough.
Getting right inside the mind of someone who doesn't behave as society expects is slightly uncomfortable. What surprises and shocks a little bit is that John's mind doesn't feel so very different.
The novel is layered in several different ways for us, and the unusual format is quite a treat.
There is a murder mystery at the core of the story, but I found the power of the characters and the atmospheric setting are so absorbing that I really wouldn't have minded if there was NO plot at all.
Cannot recommend highly enough.
July 28, 2013
This is a truly astounding accomplishment.
IAMNOWHERE is a layered, sophisticated, expertly-crafted and entertaining novel, which, quite frankly, is wasted on Amazon and should be sat in the best-sellers charts.
The novel is told through three separate narrative threads: 1) John Hathaway recounting his disturbed childhood in Southcotes. 2) John's later discussions with his psychiatrist Dr Widney. 3) and his return to Southcotes to investigate a series of drownings that began with the death of his mother when he was a boy. This intermingling of story strands takes some getting used to but once you settle into the rhythm of the novel the rewards are insurmountable.
Grant is a generous story-teller and there is so much packed into these pages: a murder mystery, a child struggling with OCD, reality distortion, an unlikely romance between two lost souls and reams of existential debate all set against the backdrop of a timeless British seaside town.
This might sound like heavy, inaccessible material but thanks to Grant's writing style, this is all digestible, endlessly readable and - against all odds - often quite funny. The prose is peppered with plenty of pop culture references (including movie quotes, Pac-Man, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and even gents' urinal etiquette) to ensure the philosophy and mathematical discussion remains light and engaging.
Grant's penchant for snappy dialogue takes on new heights. John's conversations with both Dr Widney and his love interest Lolly Quayle are immersive, hilarious, thought-provoking pieces of writing. Academy Awards have be given for lesser dialogue.
Huge segments of The Make-Your-Own-Adventure book 'The Palace of Tsui Pen' are included throughout the novel. This is a curveball which is confusing at first. However, its inclusion makes more and more sense as the novel progresses. I heavily suggest you read the novel start to finish, rather than getting side-tracked in playing the Make-Your-Own-Adventure game yourself. As the opening note explains, "the sections have been arranged to create a meaningful narrative of sorts" and this is indeed true. Its inclusion is akin to a DVD Easter Egg: it adds value to the main purchase but should not detract from the main story.
At £2.22, this is surely the best bargain on Amazon. IAMNOWHERE is priceless.
IAMNOWHERE is a layered, sophisticated, expertly-crafted and entertaining novel, which, quite frankly, is wasted on Amazon and should be sat in the best-sellers charts.
The novel is told through three separate narrative threads: 1) John Hathaway recounting his disturbed childhood in Southcotes. 2) John's later discussions with his psychiatrist Dr Widney. 3) and his return to Southcotes to investigate a series of drownings that began with the death of his mother when he was a boy. This intermingling of story strands takes some getting used to but once you settle into the rhythm of the novel the rewards are insurmountable.
Grant is a generous story-teller and there is so much packed into these pages: a murder mystery, a child struggling with OCD, reality distortion, an unlikely romance between two lost souls and reams of existential debate all set against the backdrop of a timeless British seaside town.
This might sound like heavy, inaccessible material but thanks to Grant's writing style, this is all digestible, endlessly readable and - against all odds - often quite funny. The prose is peppered with plenty of pop culture references (including movie quotes, Pac-Man, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and even gents' urinal etiquette) to ensure the philosophy and mathematical discussion remains light and engaging.
Grant's penchant for snappy dialogue takes on new heights. John's conversations with both Dr Widney and his love interest Lolly Quayle are immersive, hilarious, thought-provoking pieces of writing. Academy Awards have be given for lesser dialogue.
Huge segments of The Make-Your-Own-Adventure book 'The Palace of Tsui Pen' are included throughout the novel. This is a curveball which is confusing at first. However, its inclusion makes more and more sense as the novel progresses. I heavily suggest you read the novel start to finish, rather than getting side-tracked in playing the Make-Your-Own-Adventure game yourself. As the opening note explains, "the sections have been arranged to create a meaningful narrative of sorts" and this is indeed true. Its inclusion is akin to a DVD Easter Egg: it adds value to the main purchase but should not detract from the main story.
At £2.22, this is surely the best bargain on Amazon. IAMNOWHERE is priceless.
January 21, 2013
When a novel invades your dreams, you know it’s something special. When it occupies your waking thoughts too, then you’ve got to take your hat off to the writer.
Iain Grant has achieved something remarkable with IAMNOWHERE.
We zig-zag through a variety of perspectives on the life of John, the novel’s central character. John is schizophrenic and he’s trying to solve a mystery. He’s assisted by Lolly, a face he knows from his past, although she hasn’t yet recognised the new arrival as a primary school acquaintance.
We learn not to trust everything that John tells us. This adds to the colour of the narrative, and we get to piece things together in a glorious butterfly style.
We may not approve of everything that John does, but the most troubling aspect of this novel is that not only do we completely understand why he does those things, but we can relate to the childhood experiences that take him down that path.
Any kid who ever annoyed their parents with minor obsessions, or questioned the nature of the world we live in (and their part in it) will recognise themselves in young John. I found it dredged up thoughts and feelings from my own childhood, long forgotten.
Set against the backdrop of an eastern England seaside town, there is an atmosphere of introspection, (even while investigating mysterious deaths), and we are free to dwell on some of the existentialist conundrums that John discusses with Lolly, his psychiatrist and sometimes himself.
The mystery plot is an interesting journey in itself, but the real star of the show is the inner working of John’s mind. We want to believe that he is unique, somehow different to us, but the disturbing fact is that we can see how much like him we really are.
Iain Grant has achieved something remarkable with IAMNOWHERE.
We zig-zag through a variety of perspectives on the life of John, the novel’s central character. John is schizophrenic and he’s trying to solve a mystery. He’s assisted by Lolly, a face he knows from his past, although she hasn’t yet recognised the new arrival as a primary school acquaintance.
We learn not to trust everything that John tells us. This adds to the colour of the narrative, and we get to piece things together in a glorious butterfly style.
We may not approve of everything that John does, but the most troubling aspect of this novel is that not only do we completely understand why he does those things, but we can relate to the childhood experiences that take him down that path.
Any kid who ever annoyed their parents with minor obsessions, or questioned the nature of the world we live in (and their part in it) will recognise themselves in young John. I found it dredged up thoughts and feelings from my own childhood, long forgotten.
Set against the backdrop of an eastern England seaside town, there is an atmosphere of introspection, (even while investigating mysterious deaths), and we are free to dwell on some of the existentialist conundrums that John discusses with Lolly, his psychiatrist and sometimes himself.
The mystery plot is an interesting journey in itself, but the real star of the show is the inner working of John’s mind. We want to believe that he is unique, somehow different to us, but the disturbing fact is that we can see how much like him we really are.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews