The Catchers
by Xan Brooks
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Pub Date 15 Oct 2024 | Archive Date Not set
Salt Publishing | Salt
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Description
Spring 1927. The birth of popular music. John Coughlin is a song-catcher from New York who has been sent to Appalachia to source and record the local hill-country musicians. His assignment leads him to small-town Tennessee where he oversees the recording session that will establish his reputation. From here he ventures further south in search of glory. He is chasing what song-catchers call the big fish or the firefly; the song or performer which will make a man rich.
Waylaid at an old plantation house, Coughlin gets wind of a black teenage guitarist, Moss Evans, who runs bootleg liquor in the Mississippi Delta. The Mississippi has flooded, putting the country underwater, but Coughlin is able to locate the boy and bring him out. Coughlin views himself as a saviour. Others regard him as a thief and exploiter. Coughlin and Moss – the catcher and his catch – pick their way across a ruined, unstable Old South and then turn north through the mountains, heading for New York.
Advance Praise
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
Marketing Plan
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.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781784633202 |
| PRICE | £10.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 272 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Ben D, Reviewer
The Catchers, by Xan Brooks, takes us to 1920s America, to Appalachia, and the birth of a new music. Brooks captures the spirit of the era beautifully, and the story is engaging, well written and evocative. I could smell those Appalachians mountains. His characterisation is equally well done, from the song hunter John Coughlin to the teenage guitarist Moss Evans: their adventures across a changing America make for a recommended read.
Reviewer 679083
'The Catchers' is set in 1920s USA, where 'song catchers' travelled from the cities of the north to rural areas looking for new folk music to record for the expanding music industry. The musicians who produced said songs were paid a pittance and sent on their way, regardless of how successful the recording became. John Coughlin is new to 'catching' and plans to go further south than anyone has before. He travels deep into the southern states, where the Mississippi river has recently catastrophically flooded. There he finds a young Black musician, Moss Evans, who has survived the flood by a narrow margin. Being caught by Coughlin seems like a good opportunity to escape his unenviable existence - but he might end up wishing he'd stayed in the Delta.
The story took a while to really get going, but it was compelling in the second half once it did so. The descriptions of the apocalyptic flood are frightening and vivid, as is the disturbing nature of the people's behaviour in the aftermath of the flood. Brooks creates an atmosphere of unease and tension, where friends might turn into foes with no warning, and the usual rules don't apply - except for the ones that you wish didn't apply in the first place. The ingrained racism is just awful, and the aftermath of hurricane Katrina shows that can't be considered a thing of the past by any means.
It's an intelligent story that would make a good book group choice as there is plenty to discuss about the ethics of song catching. The Great Mississippi flood of 1927 was a true event, one that I hadn't been aware of. The appalling racial inequality and way Black people were treated before, during and after the flood is all too real. The destructive power of nature is enough to send a shudder through anyone reading, no matter how modern the era, as is the reminder of how awfully people are capable of behaving.
If you enjoy literary fiction, or have an interest in the era or region, this is a worthwhile read.
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