Why read Treacle Walker?

Book cover of Treacle Walker

Book description

'Playful, moving and wholly remarkable' Guardian 'A small miracle' New Statesman 'Mastery of craft, resonance and deep feeling on every page' Telegraph

An introspective young boy, Joseph Coppock squints at the world with his lazy eye. Living alone in an old house, he reads comics, collects birds' eggs and plays…

Explore

Topics

Folklore

Genres

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Treacle Walker as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Marian L Thorpe

Author

I understand Alan Garner’s books not literally, but in my gut.

Arising out of the landscape in which they are set, Treacle Walker tells us a tale of a boy with a lazy eye and a rag-and-bone man whose lives intersect. An exchange of objects is made – a gift for a gift, perhaps, freely given. Sight changes. Time changes. Place changes. How do we separate now from then, real from dreamt, here from there?

Garner writes with brevity and spareness; what is not said matters as much as what is. There is power in language, both in the story…

From Marian's 3 favorite reads in 2023.