What a beautiful story. I absolutely loved it.

As I listened to the audiobook, I have to mention how brilliant the narrator, Johnny Flynn, was. He brought Egg to life and he told the story so well.

It’s a quirky, whimsical story with a serious theme at its heart. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that tackles grief so well. It was heartbreaking in places, and I could really empathise with Isaac. I could well imagine being similarly distraught if anything happened to my own spouse.

Egg was brilliant and I loved the humour he provided. His and Isaac’s unlikely friendship was oddly touching.

I enjoyed how the author dropped pieces of the puzzle throughout the story, keeping the reader guessing about what the whole story was about. I did predict what was behind the locked door upstairs quite early on, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the story.

Considering it’s a story about grief, the focus is on hope, friendship and love. It’s a gentle, tender story with a hint of magic.

It’s hard to believe this story is a debut and I’ll definitely be looking out for more books by Bobby Palmer.

Different to many of the other books I've read recently. A nice little pallet cleanser of a book. Didn't hook me from the offset but by the end I was drawn right in. Liked the narrator. Others in the book club also enjoyed this listen. 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review! Isaac and the Egg has a lot going for it: its explorations of grief are uncanny and the way in which they are executed is definitely original. This very much strikes me as a ‘marmite’ book where some people will love the thoughts it provokes whereas others just won’t ‘get it’. Ironically I fall somewhere in the middle, enjoying the odd allegory at times but finding it a bit too much at other points.

There were some really heartwarming moments and some other equally heartbreaking ones - I really liked Isaac as a character and both shared his grief while rooting for him to pick himself back up. The audiobook itself was mostly fine (I applaud anyone who manages to muster multiple accents as well as voicing the Egg) and the conclusion worked for me. A decent character study which I imagine would help ignite hope in many people navigating similar paths.

A sensitive story of the grief and bereavement of a man following the loss of his wife, with a bit of magical realism thrown in...maybe

I'm so glad I listened to this before reading it, thank you to Netgalley and Headline audio for the ALC.

I loved Johnny Flynn's narration so much! He brought Egg to life, sensitively portrayed Isaac, I felt like I was listening to something that was really happening, and felt everything Isaac felt.

At times, it bordered on uncanny how familiar Isaac's life felt, and there were several parts of the book where I almost feeling like it was written either about or for me. Egg's presence was a welcome reprieve from the stifling sense of loss - this is not a light read, the grief lays thick and heavy on every page, as it threatens to bury Isaac. It is however well-written, and while at times, I thought I'd stop listening because it just didn't seem to be going anywhere outside of one man's bereavement, the mystery of the Egg kept me going, what is it? why is there? what is it going to do? what is Isaac going to do with it? And gradually it is the Egg that brings the much needed hope, right up until the end reveal and the Egg mystery is solved.

This book has stayed with me, it made me cling to my husband after reading it, and I still well up as I write this. Beautifully written, and beautifully narrated. Just don't read it if you're in a melancholy place, or if you do, know that, in time, it ends with hope.

Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer Narrated by: Johnny Flynn what a strange book this was! but beautifully written. This is the story of Isaac and the Egg, who is a grieving young man and his unforgettable new friend, who meet at exactly the right time.

As, Isaac stands alone on a bridge and screams as he is is contemplating suicide.....But,

Something screams back. But, who screams back at him?

Who is it and what is it?

Isaac follows the noise, he then stumbles upon a 2 foot high white egg in the forest. Isaac decides to take it home. Then, their unexpected journey begins of Isaac and his strange companion, whom he decides to name ‘Egg’.

Isaac and the Egg is about so many things - grief, Suicide hope, friendship and love. It was an easy to read book with a lot of meanings throughout.

Big Thank you to Netgalley and Headline for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review

The quirkiest and most memorable portrayal of grief in a novel I’ve read, ever.

This unusual story will stick with me for a long time and it was made even more special in the audiobook beautifully read by multitalented musician and actor Johnny Flynn. The books runs the full course of emotions from despair and anger, to hope, acceptance and love, and Palmer writes it beautifully and Flynn narrates this journey so well.

The Egg is what makes this novel so special, and the slow and satisfying unwinding of reveals towards the end. It had me guessing and I’m happy to say some of my hopes and predictions were true! But I won’t be a rotten egg and spoil it for anyone else!
It’s an intimate story, almost a character study, but every scene animated itself in my head.

Isaac and the Egg will be cracking into life this summer. Thanks to Netgalley and Headline for the advance audio copy!!

Full review will be posted soonish and I'll add links to blog as well.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

“Isaac stands alone on a bridge and screams into the river below. And then, an answer. A cry of despair perhaps even greater than his own. The sound draws Isaac into the woods. What he finds there changes everything.”

One of the best debut novels I’ve read/ listened to in a long time. Beautifully written & kept me captivated right up until the very last page. The must heartbreakingly accurate depiction of grief I’ve read in a very long time. Follow Issac Addy & Egg into the metaphorical abyss. If you’re looking for a true and honest portrayal of grief and love, which will leave an egg sized lump in your throat by the end, then this is the book for you.

Isaac Addy studies the river beneath the bridge, his pain deep and his agony so raw. Contemplating ending his life, he screams out his hurt and one comes back at him though it's not his. He has no coat even though it's freezing cold, he vomits then turns and stumbles back into the thick wood, and there in a clearing is an egg...

This book explores the grief of a man suffering following an accident. The author's writing style is so good and the deep, multilayered, tragic, charming tale is tender-hearted, benevolent and really quite something. The audiobook was narrated by Johnny Flynn; listening to the story was a good decision and I thought it was narrated well with Johnny's engaging voice bringing the necessary worth and verve to the proceedings. Overall, Isaac and the Egg is a super, amusing, sublime book that deals with big issues but is still an easy read. Very highly recommended and one of my favourite stories, so far this year. 😊🤞🥚🚗

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Headline Audio via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Issac and the Egg🥚
Audiobook Review 🎧
7.5hrs duration

I'd seen lots of excitement around this book on Instagram leading up to its release date. As always no spoilers in my review.
The start of the book was a little bit different, and certainly peeked my interest. I'd mentioned to my sister how I thought the book might play out. I continued listening, the narrator had a lovely calming mellow voice. But it is quite a slow story.

At over half way through the book...I took the decision to skip forward to the final 20 minutes. I very rarely do this. Just to catch the jist of the end of the story. I was right with my initial thought of the story, but hadn't appreciated the clever use of the egg. It does makes the reader think as to what it symbolises in the story.

I'll be honest I either wasn't in the mood for it or I've got the start of an audiobook slump. Love to know what others think. Did this book reach out to you?

Issac and the Egg published 9 August

📚 🎧 AD PR Product: Many thanks to Netgalley and Headline Books for this audiobook.

I was completely engrossed by this playful, heartfelt story. Fantastic characters, and a truly touching, sensitively-handled treatise on grief and loss and love. Highly recommend!

Wow this was fantastic, I didn’t want it to end. Such a quiet, thoughtful, engrossing read. I felt like I was part of his journey, I pondered, reflected, laughed, had some tears too. Can’t wait for what comes next from this author

Content warnings: grief, death, suicide, depression.

I know this book is everywhere right now... but it's beautiful so you now have to deal with my gushing about it as well. I was also approved for this on Netgalley quite a while ago but I had a blip in my reading and only just got around to listening to it recently.

The beginning of the story throws you in at the deep end with the main character, Isaac (who would have guessed), trying to die by suicide. But something stops him, a noise from somewhere nearby. He follows this noise until he discovers what looks like an egg and on further inspection realises it's quite fluffy for an egg. The 'egg' emits strange sounds and shocked by his discovery Isaac abandons his plan and takes the 'egg' home.

I am so glad that I opted for the audiobook version of this. Johnny Flynn has a smooth warm voice that is like being wrapped in your favourite blanket and snuggled up on the sofa. It makes me think of reading a bedtime story with a parent or grandparent as a child. His voice draws you in intimately to the story and then makes you jump out of your skin halfway down the road when he does the creature noises (sorry spoiler, it's not an 'egg'). You now look like a weirdo in public! But those creature noises are excellent.

The combination of Bobby Palmers world building and intimate tale of grief, coupled with Johnny Flynn's comforting narration, made me wish the story wouldn't end. The story was hilarious, sad, and confusing, all at the same time, perfectly mimicking the rollercoaster that grief and loss can cause in its aftermath.

I'm honestly tearing up just writing this right now but I don't know how best to convey the strong emotions and love this story made me feel whilst listening, and clearly still makes me feel 2 weeks after I finished.

As the weather is now starting to turn autumnal here in the UK this is the perfect book, print or audio, to be curled up with. Give in to the hype!

What an absolutely unique premise this is - a man, literally on the cusp of taking his own life (so vulnerable readers beware), hears a strange noise and upon following the sound, finds a 2ft tall egg. And then his journey begins.

I will admit, it took me a while to settle into Isaac and Egg’s story, but it’s clear from the start that Isaac is a broken man and you really feel his pain and grief for all that he has lost. And his grief is consuming him and tearing him apart. But when he meets Egg, that’s when you start to see the extent of his grief as you see flashbacks of what and who he has lost. And I love how Egg starts to affect Isaac, especially as they bond with each other (just go with it!!)

This is humorous, quirky, heartbreaking, endearing. I love the dialogue between our two main characters (uses, there’s dialogue!) And I have to say that Flynn does an amazing job at giving Egg his own unique voice (he’s excellent on narration duties). .

The big reveal towards the end is a stroke of genius. And given that the premise of this story is fantastical (I mean come on, a super-sized alien egg!) - it just gives you a big sucker punch to the gut.

If you’re after a unique read that will get under your skin, check this one out! I’m looking forward to reading more stories from Palmer in the future - he’s set the bar really high with the one!!

Thanks to NetGalley, the team at Headline Audio, and the author for the opportunity to listen to this review copy.

What an incredible debut! This is the beautifully written story of Issac and Egg. In a moment of despair, when Issac is by a bridge, he hears screaming and discovers an egg. It reminded me in some ways of A Monster Calls and provides a unique storyline. Enjoyable narration and well worth a listen or read!

I really enjoyed this! I went into it knowing barely anything, which is definitely the way to go. This book is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, detailing the grief one feels after losing a partner. This book doesn’t shy away from the uglier side of grief, the neglect of the home and the neglect of the body. I thought the pacing was great, and I just know this book will continue to be a hit, I’m very grateful I got to read it.

You don’t think about eggs very often, do you? At least, I don’t.

They are fragile: they are robust. Hard, soft, boiled, fried. They can represent stones rolled away from tombs, they can be balanced on their ends during the Vernal equinox. Allegedly. In evolutionary philosophy, they pose quite the conundrum – they are symbols of fertility: they are Schrodinger’s foodstuff.

And, in Bobby Palmer’s quirkily idiosyncratic debut, they may be a metaphor for the scrambled brain fog the eponymous Isaac is experiencing as his world disintegrates through loss and grief and everyone’s favourite river in Africa, denial.

‘Isaac and the Egg‘ is not hard boiled fiction (see what I did there?) But Palmer is a writer who blends the easy prose of a man who has worked damn hard to make it look this easy with the emotional depth charge that someone like Nick Hornby provides when dealing with men old enough to be better, but too immature to do better.

Narrator Johnny Flynn does an exceptional job. His voice has the honeyed tones of Matthew Goode – until the becalmed peace of my garden was shattered by the dog-whimpering quality of the scream used to replicate the voice of the egg. It was a shock. Almost as much as when I googled him and discovered he was the geezer from Lovesick! Either way, he is a phenomenal audiobook narrator.

‘Isaac and the Egg’ is a startling assured debut. It has a ‘Life of Pi’, ‘ET’, ‘Alien’ crossed with ‘High Fidelity’ atmosphere which marks Palmer out as a talent to watch. Moving, funny, melancholic, quirky and fast paced, this may be the late summer read we all need right now and is the sort of novel which resonates and vibrate through you as a reader long after it is finished.

Grief, friendship, family. Very touching.

It took me a while to feel this was for me. I didn't understand 'Egg' for a while. And then I realised I didn't NEED to.

Isaac doesn't either. He's beyond the understanding of most of us, in the midst of the worst of grief and about to take his own life when his scream is echoed back at him by... a something. An egg.

Is it real? A human? Animal? Alien? In his head? Whichever it is, Isaac doesn't leave it, it comes home with him. Not that an egg is going to be very helpful - it's not a counsellor. It can't hug him. It can't even talk... at least not at first.

This is a 'suspend disbelief' story. But it's also a 'slow reveal' of just what's happened to Isaac, and a very intimate and heart-breaking portrayal of grief and love and loss. Yes, I cried a few times. The love story is rather beautiful, and seeing Issac through Egg's....er... eyes? adds to the confusion of what he/it actually is, but also makes this a unique story.

Mary Poppins is mentioned here, and Egg is almost Poppins-like, it's a fair comparison, and again, maybe real, maybe not. It's whimsical and very much like a sad fairy tale.

Assuredly told, layers are peeled back gradually and movingly. This would make a beautiful film. I read an audio version, and it captured me throughout with the character voices and narrative.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

i absolutely loved this audio book. it is one of the most beautifully wholesome, and life-affirming books. Johnny Flynn does an excellent job of narrating this bring the story to life. the story has abit of everything, It’s sad, touching, funny and absolutely wonderful. its shocking, and thought-provoking as welll as being abit weird. It really is an unusual book which makes you sit back and think and i would highly recommend.

In a Nutshell: Can’t believe this is a debut work! So nuanced, so well-developed, so innovative, so wacky! The audiobook narrator took the great plot ever higher.

Story Synopsis: (Don’t want to reveal much, so just giving the barest of outlines. But the story is a lot more than this.)
Isaac Addy is contemplating suicide. While standing on the ledge of a bridge, trying to build up the courage to jump off, he suddenly hears some screaming. In following the noise, he stumbles upon a 2 foot high white egg in the forest. Isaac feels a sudden kinship with the abandoned egg and decides to take it home. Thus begins the unexpected journey of Isaac and his strange companion, whom he decides to name ‘Egg’. (Yeah, not the most imaginative guy, this Isaac!)
The story is written in the present tense using the third person limited perspective of Isaac.

First things first. This book won’t work for those who take the written word literally. There is a fair amount of suspension of disbelief, and a plot that veers between the fantastical and the outrageous. If you want a straightforward storyline that calls a spade a spade, better avoid this book. It’s for those who would enjoy allegorical takes on pragmatic conundrums.

Where the book worked for me: (Again, trying very hard to avoid spoilers! This is tough!)
💛 Egg. That’s it. No further explanations possible. Just know, I loved Egg.
💛 Isaac’s portrayal. I laughed with him. I cried with him. I felt like whacking him. I felt like hugging him. Though known to us only through a third person narration, Isaac was almost an open book, until you discover that he wasn’t.
💛 There are a few secondary characters who have quite brief roles. But even in their limited page space, their personality shines through clearly. The best of these were Mary and Joy.
💛 This is an out-and-out character-oriented novel. Such stories are tougher to carry out successfully, but the author does a splendid job.
💛 The depiction of grief is one of the best ones I have seen in fiction. Subtle yet impactful.
💛 For a debut work, it is impressive to see how controlled the writing and the plot development is. The story doesn’t go all over the place but sticks to its focus and delivers plenty of surprises too.
💛 Though most of the plot is very intense because of grief and mental breakdowns being the prime focus, there are still some light scenes and humorous banter between Isaac and Egg. These are really well-done and don’t feel out-of-place despite the dreary theme.
💛 I was worried that the ending would shatter me. But it is heartwarming and hopeful, and more importantly, proceeds logically from the story.
💛 The nod to ET.

Where the book could have worked better for me:
💔 It gets very intense on the feelings, especially when Isaac is in the depths of despair. You feel as lost as he is, floundering to get a grip on reality while shackled by his grief. Feeling a oneness with the character works to a disadvantage when the character is struggling to cope and doesn’t want to continue living.
💔 It’s a bit slow at the start. The audiobook helps.

The audiobook experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 7 hrs 25 min, is narrated by Johnny Flynn. I honestly believed that no one can match Christopher Ragland when it comes to voicing non-human characters. Johnny Flynn negated my assumption. What an outstanding narration… nay… performance! When Isaac is dealing with grief, Flynn sounds depressed. When Isaac is happier, Flynn sounds jubilant. There is some communication from Egg’s perspective, and in these, Flynn sounds like… well, like how Egg would have sounded! After a long time, I had an audiobook that I couldn't stop listening to, and that took me along the highs and lows of the characters’ emotions. Brilliantly done!


There’s so much more I want to talk about, but these babblings would be tantamount to huge spoilers. I hope this is a book where a little feedback will go a long way, just like the singular theme of the story takes the plot to greater heights.

Strongly recommended to those looking for an unusual story that combines literary fiction, magical realism, and contemporary drama. It’s simultaneously weird and wonderful! If you are an audiobook aficionado, please opt for the audio version.

4.5 stars. (If I had read this, it would have been at least 4 stars, though I am not sure how I would have felt about the barrage of grief in the initial section. But the audiobook deserves a much higher rating.)

My thanks to Headline Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “Isaac and the Egg”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.