Lanny by Max Porter

First 5 star review of the year

Max Porter's new novel Lanny  is a novel you'll never forget you read. Porter may have begun to define his unique poetic style in the brilliant Grief is the Thing with Feathers (2016) but with Lanny he takes us to the next level and beyond with pure literary virtuosity.

The book tells the story of a missing boy in a small commuter village on the outskirts of London; a well worn literary trope given a new lease of life by Porter. The boy is wistful and at times a loner until his creative mother encourages him to spend time with a local artist whilst his father takes the train into town daily reflecting on the advent of middle aged ennui. Neither parent is prepared for the shock of what follows.

Stylistically the novel is a tour de force. Porter writes each chapter from a different perspective  which provides the reader with tension, pace and adrenalin as the story unfolds. But its the narration from Dead Papa Toothwort that is most memorable. Made from snippets of overheard phrases Dead Papa Toothwort is the voice of the town, the ethereal personality of the earth itself whose appearance can shape-shift and take the form of whom or whatever he likes.

Dead Papa Toothwort is a device which Porter uses boldly to lift Lanny from novel to fable adding myth and folklore to the contemporary setting. Like an ancient text Dead Papa Toothworth's laments can be hard to read as they twist and swirl across and around the page making Lanny an experience as much as a read.

Lanny is classic, there is no doubt. Read in one go for maximum impact. 5

Lanny by Max Porter published Faber and Faber 224 pages

"Perfect devices: doctors, ghosts and crows. We can do things others can't, like eat sorrow, un-birth secrets and have theatrical battles with language and God"

I picked this novella up after having been completely seduced by the window at Waterstones Canterbury earlier this year - great effort guys!

So the Christmas break finally gave me chance to work through my bookshelf as its literally creaking under the weight of a fiction addiction. Luckily for me Max Porter's novella is a masterclass is brevity and unputdownable gotta-read-in-one-sittingness.

"Once upon a time there was a crow who wanted nothing more than to care for a pair of motherless children...."

Grief is the Thing with Feathers is part fiction and part poetry - Porter takes us on an intimate journey into the life of a small family dealing with the loss of their wife/mother. Dad is working on a book about Ted Hughes (the origin of the Crow in the title) when his wife dies leaving him to deal with his own loss and that of his two young sons.

Porter's prose is beautiful, moving and deeply personal - unlike anything I've read before. The narrative is made up of short little scenes and snap shots that are almost like flash fiction in places. Its the images that Porter beautifully paints that will leave an impression over the plot.

With the novel winning the International Dylan Thomas Price 2016 and being shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Guardian First Book Award what more convincing do you need? Read this book now, you'll never forget it.

A couple of times this book made me think of Simon and Garfunkel's I Am A Rock; "I have my books and poetry to protect me", I love that song.

I read this novel in paperback over the Christmas holiday in Thame, Oxfordshire.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter published by Faber and Faber,  129 pages.