Isaac and the Egg: the unique, funny and heartbreaking Saturday Times bestseller

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This is a deceptively complex novel; a skillful sleight of hand which charms us so fully with its accessible and hugely sympathetic two-hander that we become unaware of what it’s doing under the surface. One of the hallmarks of timeless, classic fiction is to make the specific universal, and stripped of its outer eccentricities this is exactly what Palmer’s novel does. For Isaac is both himself and all of us: in our particular capacity to both love and lose what we love and to grieve its absence in absolutely human ways. This book is just sublime . . . It will be a crime if millions of people haven’t read it this time next year 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. 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 listen to. I don’t think anyone other than Johnny Flynn could have read this book. His dulcet tones made the book even more magical and I’ll certainly listen to it again in the future.

Isaac And The Egg is a charming story about Isaac and the egg he meets in a forest at a terrible point in his life. It’s funny, sad and makes for an engrossing read. Isaac’s story involves grief and despair but also hope. It would be a good book for bookclubs as there is a lot to discuss and plenty of themes to explore. It’s a wonderful debut novel. Julie, NSW, 5 Stars I was worried that the ending would shatter me. But it is heartwarming and hopeful, and more importantly, proceeds logically from the story. An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way’ Reverend Richard ColesI'd been hearing so many wonderful things about this book, the book with the egg, the debut that has everybody talking and ok WOW, I get it: what a special little book this is!

A great deal of this control is achieved through the novel’s humour which is threaded throughout. Sometimes it’s with the wry, easy smile of a film reference, or the excellently positioned epigraph, but at other times it’s via the perfectly timed punchline, such as that which comes after Isaac and Egg’s shopping trip to town which had me laughing out loud. Make no mistake, this level of calibration - this pitch-perfect tone of the confessional - is HARD to achieve, but when done well it is masterful in its subtlety. This is an out-and-out character-oriented novel. Such stories are tougher to carry out successfully, but the author does a splendid job. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers Headline PG, for the ARC in return for providing an impartial review. Heartbreaking and heart-stealing, this modern-day fable is an unforgettable novel about sorrow, joy, friendship and love.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. The two are unlikely companions. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac’s life in ways he cannot yet imagine. Dat is het moment waarop Isaac Egg ontmoet, een groot ei met een pluizige witte vacht, een geel gezichtje, grote ogen en lange armpjes. Hij kan dit bijzondere wezentje niet achterlaten in het bos en neemt hem mee naar huis, waar Egg alles op z’n kop zet, maar waar Egg er ook voor zorgt dat Isaac weer een reden heeft om uit bed te komen. Ze proberen elkaar steeds beter te begrijpen en Isaac gaat over belangrijke zaken nadenken, zet zijn overtuigingen op een rijtje en komt tot nieuwe inzichten, hij zet weer stappen in de buitenwereld en kan zijn gevoelens niet meer wegdrukken maar moet dwars door zijn rauwe rouw heen om weer voorzichtig licht in de duisternis te kunnen waarnemen. Hoewel Isaac wel inziet dat Egg te bijzonder is om met anderen te kunnen delen, wil hij ook geen afscheid van hem nemen. Zal hij ooit sterk genoeg zijn om weer op zijn eigen benen te kunnen staan? For the first half of this book I was unsure if this was fantasy or reality, or if I even liked it. By the second half of the book I was captivated and couldn’t put it down. Never before have I read a book quite like it – beautifully lyrical, warm and yet sad, leaving question upon question. In parts I laughed. In other parts I thought “what on earth is this about?” and as the story unravelled and we learned more about Isaac Addy, I sobbed and sobbed. If you are looking for a book that pulls on the heartstrings in a touching and uniquely creative way – this is it. Nicole, NSW, 4 Stars Original, quirky, utterly compelling. These are the words that I would use to describe this book. However don’t be fooled thinking this is just a story about a cute little egg. While it is funny in places this is a book about grief, Isaac is in a bad place and his feelings are raw.

A tender, funny and surprising meditation on grief and hope . . . like nothing I’ve ever read before’ STYLIST In a series of scenes that intentionally bring to mind seminal moments from ET, Isaac takes the egg – is it an alien? Some sort of beast? – home, where it becomes a fluffy, yolk-faced lodger, and Isaac’s salvation, as he considers, eventually, how to help it return home. 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. Moving and clever… Although it starts with a death and darkness, it’s a story of hope and embracing newness’ JUSTIN MYERS, THE GUYLINER An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way’ REVEREND RICHARD COLESDit is een emotioneel, krachtig, kwetsbaar, verfrissend, verrassend en uniek verhaal over liefde, vriendschap, rouw, mentale gezondheid, geheimen, verbinding, hoop en de kleine dingen die het leven zo waardevol maken. Zodra het verhaal je grijpt laat het je niet meer los, het bezorgt je kippenvel, laat je glimlachen en is zeker het lezen waard! It’s a tale that might seem familiar. But how it speaks to you will depend on how you’ve lived until now. An utter sparkler of a novel… highly imaginative, extremely funny and profoundly empathetic’ S UNDAY INDEPENDENT This is a book that demands to be read in one sitting. Giving yourself wholeheartedly to the story and where it takes you is the best way to feel the real magic Isaac and the Egg has to offer.

Isaac and The Egg was not the type of writing I am used to reading, as such, I did find it a bit unusual and abstract at the beginning, however, it does all start to come together and make more sense as you move through it. The story looks at grief and the range of emotions, thoughts and actions a person experiences with grief. As a person who has experienced grief myself, I could relate to the feelings. I am not exactly sure that I loved this book, but that is certainly more about my personal reading likes as I think it was a well written and interesting book. Sue, WA, 3 Stars 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. 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.) Like the humble egg, we humans are fragile. We’re filled with contradictions, and we’re always bound to break. But perhaps, like Isaac and his egg, each one of us is also filled with endless possibilities – just waiting to hatch.

Perhaps that’s what scares us, but also intrigues us, about eggs. It’s definitely why I chose an egg as the perfect companion to Isaac, a man who might just be something of an egg himself.