Emotionally Weird

The latest magical mystery tour de force from one of Britain’s most original novelists – winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award for Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

On a peat and heather island off the West Coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother, Nora, take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, such as the identity of her real father – variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relationship with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans. But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?

In a brilliant comic narrative which explores the nonsensical nature of language and meaning, Kate Atkinson has created another masterpiece.