November 2015 marks the drawing to a close of Edward Carey’s exceptional Iremonger trilogy, with LUNGDON being published in the UK (Hot Key), US (Overlook) and Canada (HarperCollins) this month. Like its predecessors (HEAP HOUSE and FOULSHAM) LUNGDON is published in hardback with a stunning cover, endpapers and internal illustrations by Edward himself – even more wonderful Iremonger images than ever before in this stunning final instalment!
With a grand finale taking place in the Houses of Parliament (with Queen Victoria making a cameo appearance), Guy Fawkes seems an appropriate publication day for LUNGDON. Edward wrote this piece on Guy Fawkes (illustrated with his own reversible Halloween/Guy Fawkes card) for Electric Literature and will be introducing his fans in Austin, Texas to this very British celebration today. The US launch will take place at the Uncommon Objects store at 7:30 pm tonight and will feature the cutting (and consuming) of a House of Parliament cake and much LUNGDON signing!
FOULSHAM and HEAP HOUSE continue to receive amazing reviews. FOULSHAM was selected by Amazon.com for the best YA Books of July, who called it ‘an eagerly awaited return to an unusual gothic world of trash and treasure… There is much to learn and marvel at from beginning to end.’ Edward Carey has been likened to HARRY POTTER by Nancy Pearl, who gave HEAP HOUSE two thumbs up in her talk with Marcie Sillman on Seattle News & Information. HEAP HOUSE was a New York Times Notable Book.
Recently the Antonia Jannone gallery hosted the first ever exhibition of the Iremonger world to coincide with Bompiani’s Italian publication of FOULSHAM and Edward Carey’s visit to Milan for the Bookcity festival. Thirty original illustrations were on display – ten for each book. Edward Carey and his agent Isobel Dixon attended the launch of the exhibition last weekend, Edward’s second invitation from Bompiani this year following his visit to the Bologna book fair to launch HEAP HOUSE. The Iremonger trilogy is sold in twelve countries and the audio edition is due for release soon. Check out Grasset’s trailer for Le Château des Ferrailleurs (HEAP HOUSE) here.
In LUNGDON, the Iremonger family is at large in London, the ruins of the town of Foulsham left burning behind them. They need a new home and they intend to find one ... Londoners are beginning to notice bizarre happenings – loved ones disappearing, strange objects appearing and a creeping darkness that seems to swallow up the daylight. The Police have summoned help, but is their cure more deadly than the feared Iremongers? What role will Clod play: returning son or rebel? Heartbroken child or hero? And where are all the rats coming from?
The interlocking fates of the odd and marvellous Iremongers are now to be unravelled and disclosed in the thrilling conclusion to the Iremonger trilogy. Will servant girl Lucy Pennant and young Clod Iremonger be reunited? Will the Heaps, their ramshackle ancestral home, continue to stand? Will their birth objects, discarded items – a door knob, a bathtub plug, a matchbox, what-have-you – given to them at birth with lives and histories of their own, continue to exert their uncanny pull? All will be revealed in LUNGDON.
Novelist, visual artist and playwright Edward Carey is the author of two acclaimed adult novels as well, published in many countries around the world. OBSERVATORY MANSIONS was shortlisted for the Borders Discover New Writers Award and described by John Fowles as ‘proving the potential brilliance of the novel form’. ALVA AND IRVA was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Literary Award. Both were accompanied by Edward’s artworks.
Visit the Iremongers on Edward’s marvellous website
Praise for the IREMONGER trilogy:
‘If this were music, Carey would be Eric Satie. If it were film, he would be Tim Burton.’ – Newsday
‘Edward Carey's HEAP HOUSE-- delightful, eccentric, heartfelt, surprising, philosophical, everything that a novel for children should be.’ – Eleanor Catton, author of THE LUMINARIES
‘IREMONGER torques and tempers our memories of Dickensian London into a singularly jaunty and creepy tale of agreeable misfits. Read it by gas lamp, with a glass of absinthe at your wrist and a fireplace poker by your knee. ’ – Gregory Maguire, author of WICKED
‘Fabulously strange and in the tradition of Mervyn Peake... Astonishing and inventive, it calls out to be read.' – Sunday Times’ Best Children’s Books of 2013
‘Spectacularly weird’ – New York Times Books Review, Editor’s Choice