Elmet

Elmet is the 2017 debut novel by Fiona Mozley. In September 2017, it was shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. Plot The narrator who speaks in the sections in cursive seems to be looking for somebody against a modern landscape of highways, lorries and café stopovers. We will come to realise that this is Daniel, a boy who used to live in the middle of the forest with Daddy and big sister Cathy. There is mystery about the comings and goings of the father, and why the mother is always absent. Little by little the reader comes to understand that the father works as a thug for Mr Price, who owns all the ex-controlled rent houses and flats in the area. The father is also the unbeaten winning champion in unlawful boxing matches of the area. Most of this information is conveyed by Vivien, an elderly neighbour who lives a hike away and who tries to educate Cathy and Daniel to a certain degree. While Daniel stays at her house reading, Cathy strolls around the forests. At some point the father stops extorting rents for Mr. Price and does the opposite, pushing people to strike to get higher wages and to get reasonable rents for their households. Mr. Price offers him the deeds of the land in which he is living to go to Daniel in exchange of one last big boxing gig. He will win this one as well, although everything seemed to be stuck against him.