Edward Carey’s novel LITTLE, published by Gallic Books in October 2018, has been shortlisted for the American Library in Paris 2019 Book Award. The award, now in its seventh year, recognises the most distinguished books of the year, in English, about France. In this cycle, eighty-two titles were submitted by authors, publishers, and others for consideration. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on 7 November 2019 at the George C. Marshall Centre on Place de la Concorde in Paris. See more on the award here.
From the gutters of pre-revolutionary France to the luxury of the Palace of Versailles, from casting the still-warm heads of The Terror to finding something very like love, LITTLE is the unforgettable story of how a ‘bloodstained crumb of a girl’ went on to shape the world.
Born in Alsace in 1761, the unsightly, diminutive Marie Grosholtz is quickly nicknamed ‘Little’. Orphaned at the age of six, she finds employment in Bern, Switzerland, under the charge of reclusive anatomist, Dr Curtius. In time the unlikely pair form an unlikely bond, and together they pursue an unusual passion: the fine art of wax-modelling.
Forced to flee their city, the doctor and his protégée head for the seamy streets of Paris where they open an exhibition hall for their uncanny creations. Though revolution approaches, the curious-minded flock to see the wax heads, eager to scrutinise the faces of royalty and reprobates alike. At 'The Cabinet of Doctor Curtius', heads are made, heads are displayed, and a future is built from wax.
LITTLE has also been shortlisted for the 2019 Chautauqua Prize and the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Award for Best Independent Voice 2019, with the winner to be announced at the Capital Crime Festival in September. Carey’s novel was also longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, and the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown 2019.
Born in England, Edward Carey is a novelist, visual artist and playwright who teaches Creative Writing at the University of Austin, Texas. He was awarded the prestigious Italian Fernanda Pivano Prize in 2016. His novel LITTLE has been internationally acclaimed, with film rights optioned and rights sold in 16 countries. Picador will be re-issuing his classic early novels OBSERVATORY MANSIONS and ALVA & IRVA in the UK.
Visit Edward Carey's Website here.
Follow Edward on Twitter here.
Praise for Edward Carey
‘If this were music, Carey would be Eric Satie. If it were film, he would be Tim Burton.’ - Newsday
‘Edward Carey is an enormously talented writer…’ — Publishers Weekly
‘Edward Carey is one of the strangest writers we are privileged to have in this country. There are echoes in his work of other great idiosyncratics from Angela Carter to Russell Hoban, but he supersedes even them in the downright oddity of his mind.’ — Observer
Praise for LITTLE
‘Don’t miss this eccentric charmer’ — @MargaretAtwood
'I marvel at the achievement of this book... I loved this book best when it showed me, with its stylised dialogue, its garrotting commas, its punctuating illustrations, history as an art form, history as an argument... LITTLE isn't about history... it's about humans, and bodies, and art, and loneliness, and it's deeply, painfully sad. I could talk about it forever.' – NPR Books
'Told with extraordinary panache, and illustrated by Edward Carey, this tale of the founder of Madame Tussauds is a macabre joy.' — The Times, Books of the Year
'You will weep, you will applaud, you will wonder if your nerves can take it... Guts'n'gore galore: I bloody loved it... in Carey's subtle, modelling hands, Paris is gay and gloomy, debauched and deathly, fabulous and fearful. Marie is the eyes, ears and hold-your-nose of this book, a delightful guide to a mad, macabre world.' - Spectator
'A gripping novel of shy wit and darkly humorous occurrences, mesmerising in its virtuosity. On top of which the author's own illustrations are wonderfully bizarre, as indeed is the story he tells.' — William Ryan, Irish Independent (Author Top Books of 2018)