Isaac and the Egg: the unique, funny and heartbreaking Saturday Times bestseller

Product Information

I cannot describe my enjoyment of this. Although maybe enjoyment is the wrong word- there are scenes that will break your heart, but scenes that will mend it. An utter sparkler of a novel... highly imaginative, extremely funny and profoundly empathetic' S UNDAY INDEPENDENT

Isaac Addy might be an alien. He certainly feels like one. Apart from Joy’s flying visit and his sessions with Dr Abbass, he’s barely interacted with anyone of his own kind in months. He looks like one, too. What did Isaac Addy look like last year, before he zapped all his human friends away? Not like this. This, whatever this is, is as alien as can be. His stalagmite hair and stalactite beard make him seem like he’s from a world where the inhabitants are made of stone. His eyes used to sparkle, but now they shine only as much as two polished pebbles one would find on a beach. Isaac has hardened, calcified.” (P. 165) Isaac is a widower and he’s struggling. On a visit to the woods, he happens across a very large egg and without a second thought he takes it home and settles into a bizarre domesticity with the egg. No-one escapes grief and heartbreak and everyones journey through it will be different. Despite this story dealing with grief, it is wonderfully hopeful, charming and even funny at times. I was completely mesmerised by Isaac's emotionally charged story - we first meet Isaac where he is contemplating ending his own life, when he is distracted by a scream in the forest. He follows the sound and finds a magical, almost super-real, enormous egg in the middle of a clearing, with no clue as to where it came from or who made it. At the start of my book, Isaac and the Egg, two things happen. Our lead character, Isaac, loses his wife. Then, on one of the darkest nights of his life, he stumbles into the woods and finds something else: a two-foot tall egg.It’s an approach made to trigger the unheimlich, Freud’s concept of that which is creepy in its almost-but-not-quite-familiarity. Whether it’s James Cameron’s face-hugger home or George R. R. Martin’s dragon-filled moon, the intrigue is endlessly inviting: the bigger the egg, the bigger the question of what’s inside.

One of the reasons I like reading debuts is the marvel of the discovery of a new author who makes magic with words. The characterisation is superb, Isaac is grieving, his pain is raw and acute and he doesn’t know which way is up. He’s lonely, suffering, full of anger and his misery is palpable. As for the egg, you’ll have to encounter the wonder and sheer pleasure of that for yourself! Moving and clever... Although it starts with a death and darkness, it's a story of hope and embracing newness' JUSTIN MYERS, THE GUYLINER I have avoided the recent trend of books about grief and have issues with audio so this was another choice that perplexed me in hindsight – that was until I started listening.Unique and very special is how I’d describe it, and a book you will probably always remember with great fondness and a lasting impression – I know I will.