Crooked Seeds

‘This is an extraordinary novel. It is shattering, almost bearable, yet—so good, so clear—it is unputdownable.’ * Roddy Doyle * ‘Karen Jennings’ Crooked Seeds has a moral and psychological precision that sharpens its examination of apartheid’s legacy, and affects a bleak study, unsparing but compassionate, of a character broken by trauma.’ * Age, Pick of the Week * ‘The open-ended conclusion leaves readers with much to ponder about South Africa’s painful history and the stories Deirdre has told herself to survive. There are no easy answers in Jennings’s knotty narrative.’ * Publishers Weekly * ‘Deidre’s the kind of character who gets under your skin: furious, flawed and utterly unique. Jennings writes about broken people with unflinching honesty and deep compassion. A quietly devastating novel.’ * Jan Carson, author of The Raptures * ‘Karen Jennings is a modern master of the castaway novel. Her characters are often exiled from the world—physically or psychologically, sometimes both. Crooked Seeds’ Deidre and Trudy are unforgettable characters living on the margins of life. Together they make this an unsparing, yet profoundly beautiful novel.’ * Chigozie Obioma * ‘The past comes back to haunt a woman whose life is deteriorating in this powerful new novel from [South African] Booker Prize-longlisted author Jennings….With evocative prose and an apocalyptic setting, Jennings brings these complicated women to life while the world around them slowly crumbles. Readers will be captivated by this compelling novel about the corrosive power of family secrets.’ * Booklist * ‘Jennings writes cleanly and crisply. Her brusque, unfiltered treatment of uncomfortable subject-matter is redolent of fellow South African author, Marlene van Niekerk. Structured around short chapters, Crooked Seeds is a pacy read, but with plenty of substance for pondering. She allows the mystery that underpins the narrative to unfold organically, and leaves just enough questions unanswered to keep the story lingering long after the final page. This is simply a sensational piece of writing.’ * GLAM Adelaide * ‘An astonishing, beautifully written novel.’ * Gleebooks * ‘An extraordinary story. Absolutely brilliant and proof again…that fiction can tell us more about our human condition than most journalism can…It’s an amazing book with an incredible story at the heart of it.’ * Michael Brissenden, ABC RN: The Book Shelf *