The Hopkins Conundrum
‘Simon Edge’s novel offers laugh-out-loud set pieces as well as a remarkable glimpse of the poetic sensibility, a humane vision of the religious life, and a warm portrait of romance. It is not, perhaps, a novel to take on a sea cruise. But anywhere else it is perfect – engaging, fascinating and (by turns) funny, moving and eye-opening’
Much Ado Books
‘I love this novel. It pulls off the three-card trick of being entertaining, genuinely touching, and a fascinating insight into Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetry’
Harriett Gilbert, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s A Good Read
‘A pleasurable literary thriller. Edge wears his Hopkins learning lightly, sprinkling the book with snippets while avoiding didacticism or handholding’
The Spectator
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‘The novel seesaws between comedy and calamity, present and past. It pokes fun at pretension but also
gives an insight into why a Catholic poet such as Hopkins – so weird, so spiritual and so intense – deserves his claim to greatness. The result is a novel enjoyable on every level’
Daily Express
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‘By turns gripping and laugh-out-loud funny, this is a great read for anyone who has ever reached the end of a Vatican thriller with an eyebrow raised’
Press Association​
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‘A stunning new voice, Simon Edge crafts a send-up
that both masters and subverts genre conventions
to reveal a unique point of view and a warm,
beating heart’
Foreword Reviews
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‘A comedy with a touching emphasis on the importance of truth in human relationships’
The Tablet​
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‘A riotous read’
Nicola Heywood Thomas, BBC Radio Wales
‘This remarkable, upbeat book is a healthy, positive novelty to Hopkins literature and Hopkins people’
Dr Norman White, author of Hopkins: A Literary Biography
‘The debut novel from Simon Edge is a funny, genre-fusing page-turner... written with verve and poise’
Attitude
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‘This is a hugely entertaining book that beautifully captures the characters’ individual voices and characters. And if Hopkins leaves you cold, Edge’s excoriating analysis is an utter delight’
WI Life
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‘A remarkable debut, cleverly blending three very separate strands into a story that’s at turns witty,
touching and romantic. Warm, tragic and wonderfully written’
The Bookbag
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‘This is amongst other things a novel that takes poetic composition and poetic theory very seriously, but with a very light touch’
RTE Arena
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‘A delicious read... One of those odd books which deliver more than you’d expect’
Gscene
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A literary comedy, The Hopkins Conundrum blends
a satirical modern-day story with two historical narratives featuring the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and the shipwrecked nuns who inspired his best-known poem, The Wreck of the Deutschland.
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Click on the arrow above to watch a one-minute trailer.
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A reader heard me recite the first stanza of
The Wreck of the Deutschland on the Sunday programme on BBC Radio 4, and suggested I should record the whole thing. With the help of Adam Jones-Lloyd and Lightning Books, I made it into a video.
Click on the arrow to hear or watch it. Follow the text here.