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That kind of stuff only happens in certain kinds of books and movies, and while they are wonderful and necessary offering escapist loveliness that gives a finger in the nice candy-coated of ways to life’s blisteringly hard realities, Isaac and the Egg is not that kind of story. For the first half of this book I was unsure if this was fantasy or reality, or if I even liked it. By the second half of the book I was captivated and couldn’t put it down. Never before have I read a book quite like it – beautifully lyrical, warm and yet sad, leaving question upon question. In parts I laughed. In other parts I thought “what on earth is this about?” and as the story unravelled and we learned more about Isaac Addy, I sobbed and sobbed. If you are looking for a book that pulls on the heartstrings in a touching and uniquely creative way – this is it. Nicole, NSW, 4 Stars Maybe he will finally understand why he went there that morning. Maybe he will find a way to tell the truth.
I read it in one breath... true and tragic and funny and hopeful and big - big enough somehow to contain all of our stories and all of our lives inside it' JOANNA GLEN This is an audiobook about a lot of things - grief, hope, friendship, love. It's also about what you'd do if you stumbled into the woods at dawn, found something extraordinary there, and decided to take it home. That’s a tough question to ask in such a place because it involves examining what has been lost (desperately painful), what is left (diminished and uncertain) and what might lie ahead (honestly, does anything?) and dragging yourself, with the help, love and support of others, to the beginning of the rest of your life.That is until he walks into the woods one day on what is undoubtedly the worst day of a life that doesn’t feel like it’s ever going to get any better, and finds his existential scream of neverending pain answered by something that sounds as lost as he is.
Dit is een emotioneel, krachtig, kwetsbaar, verfrissend, verrassend en uniek verhaal over liefde, vriendschap, rouw, mentale gezondheid, geheimen, verbinding, hoop en de kleine dingen die het leven zo waardevol maken. Zodra het verhaal je grijpt laat het je niet meer los, het bezorgt je kippenvel, laat je glimlachen en is zeker het lezen waard! This is the story of Isaac and the Egg, a grieving young man and his unforgettable new friend, who meet at exactly the right time. 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. This debut novel by Bobby Palmer is beautifully written, some parts of the book are so sad and other parts are funny, upon discovering a large egg he nurtures “egg”. Not saying anything else about this book – please read it for yourself, it is a great book. Deborah, NSW, 5 Stars
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My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Headline PG, for the ARC in return for providing an impartial review.
It was a light and joyous read. The story gives you hope, that even when you are at your lowest point there is always hope and people/things that are there to lend you a helping hand. Jen, NSW, 4 Stars To even give away a hint of the astoundingly imaginative narrative of Isaac and the Egg would be to ruin the journey into its gloriously soul excoriating wonders but suffice to say, Palmer has crafted what feels like almost all the time you’re reading it, like the definitive guide to what grief feels like. When Isaac Addy walks into the woods on the worst day of his life and finds something extraordinary there, he already knows he’s going to take it home. I don’t think anyone other than Johnny Flynn could have read this book. His dulcet tones made the book even more magical and I’ll certainly listen to it again in the future. That’s the question that has kept eggs hatching on our screens since screens first existed. In Alien, it’s a face-hugging monster. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it’s an ear-splitting scream.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. Heartbreaking and heart-stealing, this bestselling modern-day fable is an unforgettable novel about sorrow, joy, friendship and love. An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way’ REVEREND RICHARD COLES A tender, funny and surprising meditation on grief and hope . . . like nothing I’ve ever read before’ STYLIST
An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way' REVEREND RICHARD COLES It's a tale that might seem familiar. But how it speaks to you will depend on how you've lived until now. I absolutely loved this book! A beautifully written story of navigating grief. Isaac Addy is devastated by the sudden loss of his beloved wife Mary. As he stands on a bridge preparing to end his life, he hears a strange scream in the woods which breaks him out of his suicidal trance. The creature Isaac discovers and takes home is instrumental in helping him navigate his nearly unbearable grief. There is so much humour and love and sadness in this story! The surprise twist is hinted at strongly and easy to predict, but that doesn’t lessen its impact. A beautifully written debut novel. Denise, QLD, 5 Stars When we meet Isaac he’s not in a good place: he’s intoxicated, dishevelled, and thinking about throwing himself off a bridge. He’s reached the absolute bottom until he hears an unnatural, pained scream that pulls him out of his own pain. The scream, he discovers, has come from an egg which ‘sits resplendent in the middle of a clearing, bathed in a heavenly light which seems to defy the darkness of the night before’. Isaac Addy is in een diep, donker dal beland, een dal waarin geen licht lijkt te kunnen doordringen. Sinds de dood van zijn grote liefde lijkt alles leeg en uitzichtloos en hij probeert zichzelf te verdoven om maar niets te hoeven voelen, hij heeft vrijwel iedereen van zich afgeduwd, verwaarloost zichzelf, is erg depressief en weet niet of hij nog wil leven. Op een dag staat hij op een brug, hij twijfelt of hij moet springen en hij schreeuwt… en dan schreeuwt er iets terug.Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them. Isaac and the Egg is one of the most hopeful, honest and wildly imaginative novels you will ever read. Like grief, eggs are fragile, prone to bursting. Anthropomorphic eggs are cute for exactly that reason – the world might just break them at any moment. Just look at Humpty-Dumpty, the eggman-par-excellence of Western culture. Isaac Addy is a man bereft, not just of his wife Mary, who has died, but of his selfhood. A scatty children’s book illustrator who had “always thought his biggest fear was people not liking him”, he is now aimless, bedraggled and literally about to jump off a bridge into the abyss when he hears a scream that leads him to a creature that looks startlingly like an egg and, “for the first time in weeks, feels an emotion that isn’t despair”. The start of this held me nicely. Isaac is stood on the bridge and considering suicide. Within that he remembers nothing, he screams and then hears a scream that is not his coming from the forest alongside the river. Despite the state he is in - and the engine is still running on his car at the end of the bridge - he heads into the forest to find the source of the scream. There he finds Egg.
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