My Name is Yip: Shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize

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It is full of lively characters, the action really picks up as the novel advances and it is quite atmospheric in its early 19th century Western-Gold Rush setting. However, the multitude of events and characters painted a colourful and brutal picture of the American Midwest. Meanwhile, the doctor went to the tavern and pronounced that the Tolroy boy would only ever be a simpleton.

And, as Yip and Dud's odyssey takes them further into the unknown - via travelling shows, escaped slaves and the greed of gold-hungry men - the pull of home only gets stronger. Yip, who narrates as an adult, is an enthusiastic storyteller, and his relationship with Dud forms the fervent backbone of the episodic narrative. Yip's story is not a happy one, it's one of suffering, pain and injustice, despite this, I couldn't pull myself away. It’s also a rollicking, page-turning wild west adventure, populated by a cast of arresting grotesques, with luminous imagery and an unforgettable protagonist.Very early in the novel I realized that I used to live in the area where this book is set - northern Georgia. Owen Meany meets Days Without End meets Django Unchained…although comparing My Name is Yip with these titles may be a bit too much praise. Cast as nothing more than a ‘simpleton’, Yip begins his narrative reflecting on his adventurous life in The American Midwest, by scribing on his chalk slate with his three remaining fingers. My name is Yip “ is so beautifully written, even though some of it is difficult to read due to man’s inhumanity to man, nevertheless, it’s a cracking adventure story set in the lawless 19th century Mid West, amidst the Georgia gold rush - a tale of courage, struggle, hope and comradeship.

This novel has such a fantastic voice, Yip Tolroy quickly cemented himself as one of my favorite characters to grace the world of literature. His debut novel, My Name Is Yip, has been shortlisted for the Betty Trask, the Wilbur Smith, a South Bank Sky Arts Award and the Society of Authors First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. A sensational debut… This is violent, anarchic American history with echoes of Sebastian Barry’s Day’s Without End, but Paddy Crewe’s take is startingly original. It’s 1815 in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, when Yip Tolroy––mute, medical anomaly, and social outcast––is born.The folksy narrative writing style reminded me of Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End, which I liked, and gave it the same kind of old-timely feel but I just never got into the story itself.

Let's face it, I've read a lot of Westerns, and this isn't up there with the very best of them, but it's a cracking read with some great characters. On the positive side, the chapters are really short, encouraging you to continue despite the lack of action. It’s here that Crewe’s powers of evoking landscape and character really begin to soar, with Melvillian prose full of striking unexpected phrases. Yip is an incredible character, up there with Owen Meany and Holden Caulfield for sheer unforgettableness.

I’ve got to say up front this simply wasn’t a book for me, not that there was anything wrong with it. Mostly for me, it reads like some of the old Western mountain men and trapper books that I used to love, but Yip has a tone and spirit of his own.

Crewe has created a memorable hero - one who cannot speak, but in nonetheless an eloquent voice on the page. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. The story moves briskly, thanks to very short chapters with concise and perfect titles and a plot that barrels along and really picks up speed at the end, taking your heart with it. I love the compelling narrator… somehow a cross between Charles Dickens's David Copperfield and Charles Portis's Mattie Ross. There are several moving moments and ruminations on the meaning and nature of life in this brutal society where there is a casualness to the death and violence which seem endemic to it.Thank you to the publishers for this review copy, now it is a western - so it's not really my go to read, but this is very well written debut. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. But while there are pleasures (and horrors too) in this picaresque of a plot, its real power lies in Yip’s distinctive voice.