Description
'Roald Dahl by way of Charles Dickens' - Vox.com
'Dark and wildly original urban fantasy tale' - The New York Times
'Delightful, eccentric, heartfelt, surprising, philosophical, everything that a novel for children should be' - Eleanor Catton, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2013
'A rare work of individual brilliance' - Inis magazine
The Iremongers have taken up what was not wanted and wanted it.
Clod is an Iremonger. He lives in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items collected from all over London. At the centre is Heap House, a puzzle of houses, castles, homes and mysteries reclaimed from the city and built into a living maze of staircases and scurrying rats. The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, but Clod has an illness. He can hear the objects whispering. His birth object, a universal bath plug, says 'James Henry', Cousin Tummis's tap is squeaking 'Hilary Evelyn Ward-Jackson' and something in the attic is shouting 'Robert Burrington' and it sounds angry.
A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy Pennant, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod's world.
The Iremongers have taken up what was not wanted and wanted it.
About the Author
Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator born in Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. He has written plays for the theatre in Romania, Lithuania and London.
He is the author of OBSERVATORY MANSIONS, ALVA & IRVA, THE IREMONGER TRILOGY (HEAP HOUSE, LUNGDON and FOULSHAM), LITTLE and THE SWALLOWED MAN. He always draws the characters he writes about but getting the illustrations and writing to agree with each other takes him far too long.
He has lived in England, France, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark and the United States. He currently teaches creative writing at the University of Texas in Austin, which is not near the sea.
Follow Edward on Twitter: @EdwardCarey70 or find out more about his books at edwardcareyauthor.com.
Reviews
What an astonishing book this is! A novel for children so good, so peculiar, so magical that it bears comparison to classics like The Hobbit, or The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Golden Compass or The Green Knowe books. That is to say, adults should read it too, in order to be given the uncanny, wrenching sensation of visiting a new and strange place - and finding a home there. -- Kelly Link
Edward Carey's HEAP HOUSE - delightful, eccentric, heartfelt, surprising, philosophical, everything that a novel for children should be. * Eleanor Catton, winner of the Man Book Prize 2013 *
All of Edward Carey's work is profound and delightful. -- Max Porter
My favourite novel for children published this year was the marvelously funny and inventive HEAP HOUSE * The Guardian *
Astonishing and inventive, it calls out to be read. -- Nicolette Jones * The Sunday Times *
Dark and wildly original urban fantasy tale. * The New York Times *
This inventive and continually surprising novel evokes a darkly distorted image of Victorian London which is at once frightening, grotesque and often very funny ... a peculiar but superbly-realised fantasy - the first book in what promises to be an excellent trilogy. * Booktrust - Books We Like *
A rare work of individual brilliance. * Inis magazine *
A deliciously macabre trilogy for middle graders and young teens channels Dickens crossed with Lemony Snicket ... in turns witty, sweet, thoughtful and thrilling-but always off-kilter-and penned with gorgeous, loopy prose just this side of precious. * Kirkus Reviews, starred review *
I am hooked . . . darkly fantastic in a very original way -- Rachel Ayers Nelson * School Library Association *
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 *
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 *
Book Information
ISBN 9781471401565
Author Edward Carey
Format Hardback
Page Count 416
Imprint Hot Key Books
Publisher Hot Key Books
Series Iremonger Trilogy
Weight(grams) 474g
Dimensions(mm) 205mm * 35mm * 136mm
