Man with a Seagull on His Head

A short but engaging debut novel. It works because of the originality of the subject matter, the insights into human nature, and the elegiac nature of the prose, which is punctuated by some wonderfully effortless similes. The dreary life of a seaside town in the hot summer of 1976 is captured beautifully at the start of the novel. Everything changes when—as the title suggests—a man is hit by a seagull on the head. Conventional assumptions are up-ended. The “victim” finds solace or perceived meaning in art, providing him with a fame he neither expected nor wanted. Towards the end, as quickly as his obsession appeared, it then goes, albeit under unforeseen circumstances. The reader feels sympathy for all the characters—a rare outcome—and is forced to ponder the meaning of art; the relationship the painter has to his subject, the viewer to the work, and so on. Paige also ties things up beautifully at the novel's conclusion. 8.5/10.

By Harriet Paige