Nobber: A zany, plague-ridden tale of greed and gore
As seen:
By Oisin Fagan
avg rating
3 reviews
‘A writer out to do whatever the hell he wants’ Observer
‘Set to become an Irish cult classic’ Sunday Business Post
‘A tremendously engaging and fun read . . . a crazed, quixotic odyssey’ Kevin Barry
An ambitious noble and his three serving men travel through the Irish countryside in the stifling summer of 1348, using the advantage of the plague which has collapsed society to buy up large swathes of property and land. They come upon Nobber, a tiny town, whose only living habitants seem to be an egotistical bureaucrat, his volatile wife, a naked blacksmith, and a beautiful Gaelic hostage. Meanwhile, a band of marauding Gaels are roaming around, using the confusion of the sickness to pillage and reclaim lands that once belonged to them.
As these groups converge upon the town, the habitants, who up until this point have been under strict curfew, begin to stir from their dwellings, demanding answers from the intruders. A deadly stand-off emerges from which no one will escape unscathed.
‘Nobber is hallucinatory and sly, conjuring a densely strange and savagely captivating world. There are lots of novels, and there are lots of novels that are all much alike, but there is nothing like Nobber’ Colin Barrett
‘A skilled storyteller with a rich command of language and rare comedic flair’ Irish Times
‘A dark and bloody tale, well leavened with bone-dry humour, and with a dramatic climax that has about it the flavour of a Jacobean tragedy’ Guardian
LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE | SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE
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Blood and guts ... I was the only person who read this to the end and I only did that because it's my book group. Everyone else gave up. Still, we had a nice evening in the pub.
Completely mad and stomach churningly vulgar. Not my cup of tea at all, sorry.
A young nobleman, barely into adulthood, travels the Irish countryside in the 14th century during the time of the plague. He is accompanied by his retinue, comprising a motley collection of three aides. They ride rough-shod over the dying locals and acquire swathes of property and land. There is also a gang of marauding Gaels, who are using the confusion caused by the plague to pillage anything they can get their hands on. Both these groups end up in Nobber, a town whose remaining population are about the most eccentric you are ever likely to meet. Welcome to Nobber, where life is certainly not as we know it.
This is a very unusual book and I really enjoyed most of it. It is completely mad, and would fit very well into a Kafka portfolio. It is also depraved in the extreme. It reminds me of Joseph Andrews or perhaps Tristram Shandy and should probably be made into a film directed by Wes Anderson. It is ludicrous, humorous, unique, original, creative and very well written. As an example of this last attribute, I generally find that drunken conversations in books don’t really work as the more nonsense that is spoken, the more confused I get in trying to follow it. I don’t seem to be able to tell whether it is the person or the alcohol talking and I don’t know whether the person concerned is talking rubbish that can just be ignored or whether the alcohol is making them reveal things that they wouldn’t otherwise have said and which are relevant to the plot. The most convincing drunken conversation that I have ever read happens in this book in a very long conversation between Harold and Ambrosio. It really is a masterpiece of writing.
There are certainly some disturbing scenes and some vividly described imagery. Unfortunately the descriptions were often so graphic that I couldn’t help but visualise the details, despite the fact that most of the time I wished I hadn’t. This is hardly a criticism, rather it is an indication of the skill of the author but maybe some of the depravity was just one step too far for me – hence the 4 star rating.
I would be careful who I recommended this book to as it may well not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you are not easily offended and are game for reading a mad book which requires a healthy sense of humour in order to stay sane, then give it a go.
