My Name is Yip by Paddy Crewe

'I can't recommend it enough' Rachel Joyce, author of Miss Benson's Beetle'Singular and singing' Sebastian Barry, author of Days Without End'Magnificent' Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers***A New Statesman 'most anticipated' debut 2022***The year is 1815. One October night in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, Yip Tolroy is born, the cord snaked around his fragile neck, his skin a deathly white. As his mother still lies in the blood-slicked sheets, and Yip takes his first gulps of air, his father disappears without trace.

By the time Yip reaches his fifteenth year he has not spoken a word - he is mute, friendless, an outcast. But his life is about to change irrevocably. Gold is discovered nearby, and Yip commits a grievous crime that leaves him with no choice but to flee.

In the company of a new and unlikely comrade, Dud Carter, Yip must take to the road, embarking on a journey that will thrust him unwittingly into a world of menace and violence, of lust and revenge. And, as Yip and Dud's odyssey takes them further into the unknown - via travelling shows, escaped slaves and the greed of gold-hungry men - the pull of home only gets stronger... 'I love the compelling narrator...

Like True Grit, Yip takes us on a wild ride.' Michael Punke, author of The Revenant and Ridgeline