About The Doll Funeral
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Melville House (August 15, 2017)
“[Evokes] both Jeanette Winterson and Ian McEwan . . . an elegiac and uplifting novel about the indissoluble bonds between mothers and daughters, and a reminder of how the imagination can set you free.” — The Guardian
On Ruby’s thirteenth birthday, a wish she didn’t even know she had suddenly comes true: the couple who raised her aren’t her parents at all. Her real mother and father are out there somewhere, and Ruby becomes determined to find them.
Venturing into the forest with nothing but a suitcase and the company of her only true friend—the imaginary Shadow Boy—Ruby discovers a group of siblings who live alone in the woods. The children take her in, and while they offer the closest Ruby’s ever had to a family, Ruby begins to suspect that they might need her even more than she needs them. And it’s not always clear what’s real and what’s not—or who’s trying to help her and who might be a threat.
Told from shifting timelines, and the alternating perspectives of teenage Ruby; her mother, Anna; and even the Shadow Boy, The Doll Funeral is a dazzling follow-up to Kate Hamer’s breakout debut, The Girl in the Red Coat, and a gripping, exquisitely mysterious novel about the connections that remain after a family has been broken apart.
“[Hamer’s] fascination with the thresholds between childhood and adulthood, sanity and insanity, chosen and blood families, and her subtle understanding of the clean, often disturbing logic of childhood morality, evoke both Jeanette Winterson and Ian McEwan . . . This is an elegiac and uplifting novel about the indissoluble bonds between mothers and daughters and a reminder of how the imagination can set you free.” —Melanie McGrath, The Guardian
“I felt instantly protective of Ruby; the teenager with a secret so chilling I had to check the front door was locked. Hamer’s brilliant storytelling made me read on for fear Ruby’s fate depended on it.” —Anna Silverman Grazia
“Hamer’s ability to conjure an atmosphere is certainly powerful. Particularly resonant is her portrait of the beauty and menace of the Forest of Dean.” —Rebecca Nicholson, The Sunday Times
“What holds the novel together is the tremendous momentum of the story itself, which gathers pace with every page, hooking you into its strangeness and keeping you hooked to the very last word.” —Rebecca Abrams, Financial Times
Purchase Links
Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble
About Kate Hamer
KATE HAMER is the author of The Girl in the Red Coat, which was a Costa First Novel Award finalist, a Dagger Award finalist, an Amazon Best Book of the Year 2016, and a winner of the ELLE Lettres Readers’ Prize. She lives in Cardiff, Wales, with her husband and two children.
Connect with Kate
Website | Twitter
Kate Hamer’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, August 14th: Thoughts on This ‘n That
Tuesday, August 15th: Books a la Mode – author guest post
Wednesday, August 16th: Ms. Nose in a Book
Thursday, August 17th: Jathan & Heather
Monday, August 21st: Patricia’s Wisdom
Tuesday, August 22nd: Write Read Life
Thursday, August 24th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Friday, August 25th: Kahakai Kitchen
Monday, August 28th: Thoughts from a Highly Caffeinated Mind blog and Instagram
Tuesday, August 29th: Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, August 30th: A Dream Within a Dream
Thursday, August 31st: Books & Bindings
Thursday, September 7th: Girl Who Reads
Thursday, September 14th: Suzy Approved