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The book tells the tale of Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins, a beggar and story teller, who shares the history of the town and its inhabitants with anyone willing to buy him a coffee or offer him a sweet. A young boy, Laddy Merridew comes to town to stay with his grandmother while his parents’ marriage goes through a rough patch, and he forms an unlikely friendship with the older man.
The Financial Times
“My novel of the year is The Coward’s Tale … an extraordinarily lyrical, moving, funny evocation of a Welsh mining town and its inhabitants as seen through the eyes of “the coward”… A poet’s novel, really…not…just beautifully written prose-poems and good jokes, but part of a cunningly wrought whole. A terrific achievement.”AN Wilson,
(read more) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f4d060dc-1780-11e1-b00e-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2A9ijpCbj
The Independent
“Gebbie is as at ease with humour as she is with poignancy….A hypnotic debut.” Leila Sanai
(read more) http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-cowards-tale-by-vanessa-gebbie-6281847.html
Kirkus Review (Starred)
With the hypnotic charm of her Welsh lilt, natural storyteller Gebbie whittles tales from a hard bone of loss to create a profoundly moving world.
(read more) https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/vanessa-gebbie/cowards-tale/#review
The Guardian
“a delicately crafted book of real interest …(..) spellbinding.”
(read more) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/09/first-novels-roundup-reviews
Publishers’ Weekly
“The tenderness and generosity of this debut novel is strengthened by the precision and sharpness of its language.”
(read more) http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-60819-772-9
New Welsh Review
“The Coward’s Tale is remarkable because Gebbie has taken up the baton passed on to Welsh writing by Dylan Thomas and produced a début novel that is powerful in its storytelling, touching in its view of small-town life, and bold in its stylised language.(…)This novel should certainly stir a debate about the relationship of twenty-first century fiction from Wales to its heritage from the 40s and 50s.” Robert Walton
(Read more) http://www.newwelshreview.com/article.php?id=331
City Book Review for San Francisco, Tulsa, Sacramento
I fell in love with Laddy and Ianto and found myself cheering them on. Tammy McCartney
(Read more) http://tulsabookreview.com/2012/05/the-cowards-tale-a-novel/
Marie Claire
“dazzling, vibrant and melancholy”
Psychologies Magazine
“Poetic…an absorbing portrait of love, grief and humanity.”
Canberra Times
“This novel is a wonderful tapestry of the way compassionate kinship celebrates life, and is highly recommended.”
(read more) http://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/smalltown-tapestries-20120309-1unus.html?skin=text-only
Which Book
“Not to be missed.”
(read more) http://www.openingthebook.com/whichbook/book.aspx?t=The+Coward’s+Tale&by=Vanessa+Gebbie&id=10693
Tzer Island
“Gebbie writes musically rhythmic prose, forming sentences as sharp and shimmery as broken glass. Both in style and content, The Coward’s Tale is an outstanding novel.”
(read more) http://www.tzerisland.com/bookblog/2012/2/22/the-cowards-tale-by-vanessa-gebbie.html
Cornflower Books
In a book based on a central tragic event, there is great humour and humanity, honesty and poignancy – the pitch is just right, and all the while the story’s cadences rise and fall with a lilt and a rhythm that make it irresistible. … this is an outstanding piece.
(read more) http://www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk/2012/03/out-now-in-paperback-the-cowards-tale-by-vanessa-gebbie.html
Tales from the Reading Room
“…boldly and powerfully different. (…) I was deeply moved by this book. It is at times incredibly sad, but always brave, inventive and beautiful”
(read more) http://litlove.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/no-cowards-here/
Chicks Dig Books
This is a really good debut novel that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys British stories and dramatic literary fiction. I’d like to see another book from Vanessa Gebbie sometime soon!
(read more) http://chicksdigbooks.com/2012/03/04/book-review-the-cowards-tale/
Litsnap
When you think Wales, you think Dylan Thomas, and if that’s the case, you will not be disappointed in Gebbie’s novelistic debut. She sings in these pages. Joel Gardner http://litsnap.com/viewpage.php?snapID=’362′
Seeing the World Through Books:
“It has been two years since I have added a new book to my list of All-Time Favorites, but that has just changed with the release of this novel which deserves a special place on my Favorites list. Set in the mining country of southern Wales, Vanessa Gebbie’s incandescent new novel…” Mary Whipple
( read more) http://marywhipplereviews.com/vanessa-gebbie-the-cowards-tale-wales/