Erskine's Box

Erskine's Box

by KymLloyd (Author)

Synopsis

Erskine Flesching, our unreliable narrator, admits that he's 40; that he returned three years ago to his childhood home by the sea to live with his mother, who he hasn't seen since he was 10; and that he has been a successful opera singer. What he won't spell out is which part of him a dog bit off when he was a child; that what he obsessively carves out of wood are penises; or why so many people from his past -- father, sister, lover and patroness -- seem to be dead. And he appears to be addressing a young woman who has stolen both his heart and secrets, and is locked up in his private sanctuary. Is she dead too? Can he be trusted? Is this just wish fulfilment or a madman's confession? Like a demented spider, Erskine Flesching spins his victims and his readers into his web. By the end you don't know who's been had.

$50.20

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 19 Jan 2004

ISBN 10: 0340824301
ISBN 13: 9780340824306

Media Reviews
'Startlingly lovely prose ... It's faultless ... Lloyd carries it off by that simplest of expedients - being brilliant.' -- Independent on Sunday 'This story of unrequited love and artistic failure evolves into a stylish, yet believable tale of gothic horror. The skill of Lloyd's writing makes it a real page-turner, a truly promising debut.' -- Daily Mail 'Lloyd is a lapdancer of a writer ... damn nasty, and all the better for that' -- The Face 'Lloyd teases mercilessly, coyly leading one to a conclusion as dreaded as it is desired.' -- The Times 'Deliciously macabre ... The gradual unravelling of [Erskine's] myth-making as he returns to his childhood home after 30 years lends suspense to this ribald verbal feast' -- Arena 'Teases and delights in equal measure ... the ambiguity of everything Erskine relates keeps the reader hooked to his revelations up to the last page' -- Waterstone's Books Quarterly 'Lloyd has created a compellingly enigmatic monster, one fit to sit alongside other great literary ghouls like John Fowles' Frederick in THE COLLECTOR and William Trevor's Mr Hilditch in FELICIA'S JOURNEY ... utterly compelling. This is a spellbinding book which will work its (black) magic on you and keep you up long past your bedtime.' -- Big Issue in the North (*****) 'One of the most original novels you're likely to come across this year.' -- Irish Examiner
Author Bio
Kym Lloyd was born and grew up in Swansea. As a schoolchild she won a WHSmith Young Writers Prize and, after gaining a degree in French and working for a publisher in Oxford, chose to concentrate on her writing. While supporting herself in a variety of jobs from cleaning to van driving, she succeeded in getting short stories and poems published in several magazines. She now lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and twin daughters, and is working on her second novel.