The Catchers

Praise for Previous Work

‘A fairytale wrapped within a historical novel, it’s as quixotic and dreamlike as Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant.’ —Alex Preston, author of In Love and War

‘This will be familiar to fans of Decline And Fall. But what Evelyn Waugh treated satirically isn’t so funny any more, and this well-written novel is more tender and sad than bitingly hilarious.’ —Fanny Blake, Daily Mail

‘With its finely judged atmosphere of tainted innocence, Brooks’s novel frames the real horrors of post-conflict trauma as episodes of near-fairytale jeopardy: the grown-up terrors in the dark wood and the poisonous intoxications of the great house are trials in which his heroine’s strength of character is forged. As in fairy stories, the happy-ever-after consists of the simplest of fulfilled desires: a home, work, a family: love as ordinary and essential as bread.’ —Jane Shilling, Evening Standard

‘Set after the first world war, is a macabre and unsettling tale of a young girl who is made a plaything of the “funny men”, a group of damaged soldiers, so badly injured they have removed themselves from the world completely. The novel has a woozy, tainted fairytale quality – Brooks calls these molten men of his the Tin Man and the Scarecrow – and a heightened aspect, like looking at the world through a cracked magnifying glass. It’s a bizarre, horror-flecked novel, pleasingly distinctive in its oddness.’ —Natasha Tripney, Observer

‘A stunning, beautifully written debut by Xan Brooks … A masterful first novel.’ —Sophie Raworth, Read by Raworth

Review coverage: Big Issue, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Observer, Telegraph, Times, Sunday Times • Events include: Launch at Mr B’s Emporium, Salt Salon, Blacklisted podcast, Edinburgh Book Fair 2023 • National and Regional select press features: Esquire, Guardian Podcast, Shortlist, Metro • Broadcast opportunities: Monocle, Talk Radio, Front Row.