Box Hill

Box Hill

Adam Mars-Jones

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 128 pages

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On the Sunday of his eighteenth birthday, in 1975, Colin takes a walk on Box Hill, a biker hang-out. There he accidentally trips over Ray, a biker napping under a tree – and that’s where it all starts. This transgressive, darkly affecting love story between men, winner of the 2019 Fitzcarraldo Editions Novel Prize, is a stunning novel of desire and domination by one of Britain’s most accomplished writers.

Learn more: https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/box-hill/

Awards

Spectator Books of the Year 2020

‘Adam Mars-Jones has never needed to write at great length to convince readers of his talent…. Mars-Jones’s latest work is a sliver of a novel that provides ample evidence of his prowess…. Box Hill is not a novel for the prudish, but it is a masterclass in authorial control…. Despite its diminutive length, it is rich with detail and complexity, and has plenty to demonstrate Mars-Jones’s well-deserved place on any list of our best.’

Alex Nurnberg, Sunday Times

‘The biggest small book of the year.’

Guardian

‘An exquisitely discomfiting tale of a submissive same-sex relationship … perfectly realised.’

Anthony Cummins, Observer

‘A subtle, biting novella…. Although repressed boomers of Surrey are probably not the target audience of this intimate, stirring novel, they would probably enjoy this portrait of an impossibly lost age.’

Martin Chilton, Independent

Adam Mars-Jones

Adam Mars-Jones’ first collection of stories, Lantern Lecture, won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1982, and he appeared on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists lists in 1983 and 1993. His debut novel, The Waters of Thirst, was published in 1993 by Faber & Faber. It was followed by Pilcrow (2008) and Cedilla (2011), which form the first two parts of a semi-infinite novel series. His essay Noriko Smiling (Notting Hill Editions, 2011) is a book-length study of a classic of Japanese cinema, Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring. His memoir Kid Gloves was published by Particular Books in 2015. He writes book reviews for the LRB and film reviews for the TLS.

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