we pretty pieces of flesh
An exuberant and ribald debut novel about three adolescent girls, as sweetly vulnerable as they are cunning and tough, coming of age in a gritty postindustrial town in nineties Yorkshire, England.
“Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.” But it’s also the home of Rach, Shaz, and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin plotting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace – the girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from each other, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
Written in a Yorkshire dialect that brings a place and its people magnificently to life, Colwill Brown’s We Pretty Pieces of Flesh spans decades as its heroines come of age, never shying from the ugly truths of girlhood. Like Trainspotting and Shuggie Bain, it tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, turning one overlooked and forgotten place into the very center of the world.
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“With this debut, Colwill Brown announces herself as unforgettable. The music and precision of her language, the fun and fervor of her characters, all of these things make We Pretty Pieces of Flesh a wondrous, luminous novel.”
―Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of the National Book Award finalist Chain-Gang All-Stars
“A big, brave, beautiful scream of a book. It is haunting and hilarious and heartbreaking, so tender, so raw, so deeply felt, so full of insight and sympathy and, above all else, so exquisitely written. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is a rare wonder of a book and Colwill Brown is a writer of astounding originality.”
―Edward Carey, author of Edith Holler
“Colwill Brown is, simply, brilliant and original on every level… We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is astonishing, as hilarious and wrenching as life itself. Her characters and sentences knock around my brain still, moving, unsettling, indelible. She is a writer like nobody else.”
―Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Hero of This Book and the National Book Award Finalist The Giant’s House
“Tender and raucous, Shaz, Kel and Rach’s friendship is brilliantly realized. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is a novel brimming with rough poetry, heart and mischief.”
―Ferdia Lennon, author of Glorious Exploits