Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Biography, Literature & Literary studies
Weblink
http://www.oneworld-publications …

MAGNIFICENT JOE

James Wheatley

In spare and powerful prose, James Wheatley has crafted a brilliantly compelling, often dark, and frequently funny novel about how an extraordinary friendship can offer redemption and help rebuild a life.

Recently released from prison, Jim is welcomed back by his childhood mates to the northern working-class town where he grew up. With no alternative, Jim falls in step with their lives: work, pub, sleep. The only glimmer of warmth amid the tough grind is his friendship with Joe - a man with severe learning difficulties who is regarded with suspicion by the rest of the community. But when Joe is falsely accused of a crime, Jim must break the claustrophobic confines of his life in order to protect Joe from his persecutors.

James Wheatley is a research consultant, musician, and writer. A graduate of the Sheffield Hallam Creative Writing MA, taught by Jane Rogers and Sean O'Brien, he lives in Yorkshire where he divides his time between writing and playing guitar in several bands. This is his first novel.

Available products
Book Published by Oneworld
Book Published by Oneworld

Comments

Taut, tense, and tragic... a triumphant debut."

This fine first book, half bildungsroman and half 'state of England' novel, tells the story of Jim and his mates growing up in a village in the north of England… Wheatley can sure turn a phrase… A sweetly sad story.

Magnificent Joe is a great debut and I look forward to reading more from James Wheatley. If this book is anything to go by I think he will have a bright future.

Raw and powerful, yet compelling and emotional. I enjoyed this story very much; the characters, the writing and the dialogue are perfectly pitched.

Wheatley's debut is written with astonishing assurance and emotional maturity. Featuring some memorable characters and a genuinely poignant story, he has painted a powerful, gritty, unsettling picture of friendship and identity that will resonate with all lovers of Steinbeck.

Strong and spare... witty and utterly convincing.

A brutal little novel that manages also to be tender and funny.