‘Barrowbeck casts a real spell – or is it a curse?’ Mail on Sunday
‘Thrilling, unsettling, ominous . . . like a knock at the door on a dark evening’ Irish Times
‘Impeccable and beautifully drawn . . . Hurley has been rightly lauded in British folk-horror circles’ Big Issue
For centuries, the inhabitants of Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, have lived uneasily with forces beyond their reckoning. They raise their families, work the land, and do their best to welcome those who come seeking respite. But there is a darkness that runs through the village as persistently as the river.
A father fears that his daughter has become possessed by something unholy.
A childless couple must make an agonising decision.
A widower awaits the return of his wife.
A troubled man is haunted by visions of end times.
As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley. Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end.
‘Hurley’s achievement is, like American craftsman of the weird H.P. Lovecraft before him, to put humanity in its place’ Northern Soul
‘Hurley is the master of contemporary British folk horror’ Dazed
‘Thrilling, unsettling, ominous . . . like a knock at the door on a dark evening’ Irish Times
‘Impeccable and beautifully drawn . . . Hurley has been rightly lauded in British folk-horror circles’ Big Issue
For centuries, the inhabitants of Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, have lived uneasily with forces beyond their reckoning. They raise their families, work the land, and do their best to welcome those who come seeking respite. But there is a darkness that runs through the village as persistently as the river.
A father fears that his daughter has become possessed by something unholy.
A childless couple must make an agonising decision.
A widower awaits the return of his wife.
A troubled man is haunted by visions of end times.
As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley. Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end.
‘Hurley’s achievement is, like American craftsman of the weird H.P. Lovecraft before him, to put humanity in its place’ Northern Soul
‘Hurley is the master of contemporary British folk horror’ Dazed
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Reviews
A tour de force of physiological fantasia . . . Writing of this quality - sensuous, exact, observant - ensures that other scenes, too, pulse with vitality . . . Hurley's gothic storylines send spectres of deathliness through his fictional world. His prose brings it vividly alive
I will confidently predict that no reader will guess where it's heading . . . Hurley's ability to create a world that's like ours in many ways and really not in many others is again on full display . . . Starve Acre, leaner and perhaps even more unsettling than its predecessors, may well be his best novel so far
Beautifully written and triumphantly creepy
A perfectly pitched tale of suspense and the dark side of folklore . . . perfect, page-turning reading for a dark night
This kind of book, as with ghost stories from M.R. James to Susan Hill, demands a phenomenal control of language and atmosphere to work at all, and Hurley provides it in spades . . . This is a wonderful story of its type that has all the qualities of unease, nastiness, terror, psychological trauma and implied physical revulsion one expects from folk horror. But it's nothing to the denouement it foreshadows
Barrowbeck casts a real spell - or is it a curse?
Hurley's well-crafted tales have an unsettling, ominous quality, like a knock at the door on a dark evening - a stranger arriving at the hearth, thrilling the listener with stories from another world . . . made even more chilling by the parallels drawn to our own troubling times . . . Hurley's growing body of work consistently immerses readers in a strong sense of place, and Barrowbeck is no exception. The land utself becomes a persistent character, defined by the cold, the darkness, the remote setting and an ever-present sense of doom.
Has all the beguiling oddness of a fairy tale . . . Turning a circle from prophecy to portent, from massacre to deluge, Hurley's achievement is, like American craftsman of the weird H.P. Lovecraft before him, to put humanity in its place. Unlike Lovecraft, however, who set the species against the caprices of beings both unknown and unknowable, Hurley affords Homo Sapiens the grace of agency . . . The prevailing darkness is leavened, too, by the striking beauty of his imagery . . . Hurley demonstrates the undoubted breadth of his craft
Hurley is the master of contemporary British folk horror . . . [as] pleasurable to read as much for its beautiful descriptions of natural landscapes and weather as it is for its horror elements . . . truly disturbing
Impeccable . . . Hurley has been rightly lauded in British folk-horror circles . . . Hurley expertly draws universal themes across the tales, giving the small, focused narratives a wider and more profound power. There are elements of pure Wicker Man-style folk horror here, as well as hints of cosmic horror and the supernatural . . . the remoteness and unique feel of the northern valleys is drawn beautifully on the page . . . the sense that the land has a spirit of its own lends this book a heft and meaning. A fascinating book in terms of subject matter, style and execution.
Seamlessly brings together the mundane and the uncanny . . . what we're reminded of is the eternal truth, whether with supernatural dimensions or not: there's nowt so queer as folk
PRAISE FOR ANDREW MICHAEL HURLEY:
Barrowbeck joins that fascinating canon of fragmented novels that explore a particular landscape through the passage of time . . . There is a deeper sense of darkness . . . a satisfying sense of continuity to the whole, a narrative arc that rewards the reader's involvement and careful attention . . . Hurley's instinctive feel for language, his acute observation of the natural world and sure grasp of the tradition in which he is working make this dank little village a curiously seductive place to get lost in
Barrowbeck, like the haunted land of Hurley's previous novels, is a natural spot saturated by storytelling . . . Hurley shows how legends accrue over time from virgin ground . . . as the stories begin to interlock, shadowy themes emerge . . . Hurley conjures up marvels and impossibilities.
