An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way' REVEREND RICHARD COLES I imagine the portrayal of the characters by the narrator is exactly how the author intended. Johnny Flynn has a soothing, but engaging voice – absolutely perfect for such a touching, tender story. I even wonder would I have enjoyed the book quite so much had I read it myself. I will never know because I can’t unhear it, I’ve been spoilt and if all narrators were this good, I’d maybe never read a book myself again. Many thanks for giving me the chance to listen to this wonderful book read by Johnny Flynn. Just brilliant.

This review is for the audio version of the novel, I found the audio version made a great bedtime story, the narrators tone, pitch and pace matched the story perfect. I found the 30-40mins chapters just the right amount for a chapter before bed, with the excellent voices done by the narrator I felt I got a sense of how Iscca as feeling and I loved the sarcasm at times and the way the narrator conveyed this. This story made a great audiobook and I suspect it would be equally as great in print. The Chinese creator god Pangu also hatched from an enormous egg, one in which the opposing principles of yin and yang were perfectly balanced. In fact, the idea of the “world egg” can be found across cultures, continents and millennia, from Finnish epics to Polynesian mythologies to the ancient texts of the Egyptians and the Zoroastrians. This quote, from the show’s first season, imagines the moon as a giant egg. In fact, much of the series builds its mystique around eggs – three of them, to be precise, which may well contain dragons the entire world had thought to be extinct. Isaac is a widower and he’s struggling. On a visit to the woods, he happens across a very large egg and without a second thought he takes it home and settles into a bizarre domesticity with the egg. It’s an approach made to trigger the unheimlich, Freud’s concept of that which is creepy in its almost-but-not-quite-familiarity. Whether it’s James Cameron’s face-hugger home or George R. R. Martin’s dragon-filled moon, the intrigue is endlessly inviting: the bigger the egg, the bigger the question of what’s inside.Isaacs rouwproces wordt indringend en levensecht beschreven, je wordt helemaal meegenomen in zijn ellende en zijn gevoelens zijn confronterend, realistisch en intens. Wanneer de radeloosheid alles over lijkt te nemen ontmoet hij Egg, en deze onvoorwaardelijke vriend is alles wat Isaac op dat moment nodig had. De exacte rol van Egg blijft lastig te duiden, maar of hij nu een wezentje is, een hallucinatie, een metafoor voor het rouwproces of een soort gids die Isaac telkens een extra stapje laat zetten, je moet je uiteindelijk maar gewoon aan zijn bestaan overgeven en zijn rol in dit verhaal accepteren. En hoewel de fantasie voor mij op sommige momenten net te veel botste met de aangrijpende gebeurtenissen, waardoor het geheel dan iets té absurd werd, zorgt Egg ook voor ontwikkeling, een zekere luchtigheid en humor en sluit je hem alleen daarom al in je hart. This is the story of Isaac and the Egg, a grieving young man and his unforgettable new friend, who meet at exactly the right time. This is beautifully written, it’s captivating with a delightful blend of humour and the heart breaking. Some scenes are so vivid, so well described you feel like a fly on the wall observing the frequent chaos. Many of the incidents make me smile and I doubt I’ll ever open a tin of beans or look at a toaster in the same way ever again!!!! It’s creative in a myriad of ways, it initially seems straightforward but it’s a more complex tale than it appears at first glance. I love the clever use of film to make pertinent points and the delightful originality of some of the language.

Isaac has family & friends trying to help him sort his life, but he cannot cope with their interventio A tender, funny and surprising meditation on grief and hope . . . like nothing I've ever read before' STYLIST Halloween graphic novel review: Voyaging Vol. 1 – The Plague Star by George R R Martin (story) and art and adaptation by Raya Golden The two are unlikely companions. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac’s life in ways he cannot yet imagine. If that sounds like a lot, it is, and for all its magicality and whimsy and sheer endearing funniness at times, Isaac and the Egg doesn’t attempt, not once, to sugarcoat how utterly hard that whole journey is, and how even if something happens to you to begin reshaping things, which it most certainly does to Isaac Addy, that it’s not some overnight fix.This is an out-and-out character-oriented novel. Such stories are tougher to carry out successfully, but the author does a splendid job. An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way' Reverend Richard Coles A grieving Isaac and his curious new friend are unlikely companions. They don't even speak the same language. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac's life in ways he cannot yet imagine.

Thank you so much to Headline Audio and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. BOBBY PALMER is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He is co-host of the literary podcast Book Chat with Pandora Sykes. His critically acclaimed debut, Isaac and the Egg, was published in 2022. Small Hours is his second novel. Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them. Isaac and the Egg is one of the most hopeful, honest and wildly imaginative novels you will ever read. Despite the terrible sadness of Isaac’s situation, the author somehow also manages to make the book laugh-out-loud funny in places. As the story progresses we learn more about the circumstances that have brought Isaac to this point and the pieces of the puzzle gradually fall into place.Moving and clever... Although it starts with a death and darkness, it's a story of hope and embracing newness' JUSTIN MYERS, THE GUYLINER However I just couldn’t get into it. I stopped and started it a couple of times but I just found the storyline and the concept of the egg really silly.