Small Hours by Bobby Palmer

 

If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden, here's what you'd see:

A father and son, a fox standing between them.

Jack, home for the first time in years, still determined to be the opposite of his father.

Gerry, who would rather talk to animals than the angry man back under his roof.

Everything that follows is because of the fox, and because Jack's mother is missing. It spans generations of big dreams and lost time, unexpected connections and things falling apart, great wide worlds and the moments that define us.

If you met them in the small hours, you'd begin to piece together their story.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley and the publisher Headline in return for an honest review.

Bobby Palmer writes with such beauty, it’s almost lyrical. I love the way he writes, which is what tipped me to a 4 star from a 3.5.

I think I was expecting to enjoy this more than I did, as I absolutely fell in love with Isaac and The Egg. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but the parts I loved the most were Gerry’s pov chapters. Again, I loved the way Bobby wrote from his pov, the words seemed to just flow across the pages (or screen in my case). 

I remember early in in the book, thinking I don’t understand what’s going on here. But if you’ve read Isaac, you’ll know this is Bobby's style, and by the end it just all clicks into place.

I’ll definitely read more of Bobby’s work in the future, he writes like no one else I’ve ever read before.

Thanks again to Headline and Netgalkey for my arc, and thanks to Bobby Palmer for sharing his beautiful writing with us all