Crocodile by Daniel Shand review – adolescence and abandonment

Menace permeates an unpredictable story about an 11-year-old girl sent to her grandparents for the summer, from a Scottish author on the rise

“It’s all about the voice,” aspiring novelists are told. Every so often, you come across a voice so distinctive that the writer’s words seem to have been whispered in your ear, with no page or screen coming between you. Daniel Shand is one of those writers.

Born in Kirkcaldy and now living in Glasgow, he won the Betty Trask award in 2017 for his debut novel, Fallow. Although it gained praise from such Scottish luminaries as Allan Massie and Alan Warner, it struggled to get noticed further from home. That was a shame, because Fallow is a terrific achievement. Taut and tense, it follows two brothers on the run through rural Scotland. With each chapter their path twists and narrows, as it accrues the queasily compelling air of a fable about rats in a trap. Shand is brilliant at conveying the shifting balances of power between his characters through their lean dialogue alone. Not since Trainspotting’s Begbie has “Aye, pal” sounded so menacing.

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from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2GGrZU6

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