About Evie
Evie Wyld was born in London and grew up in Australia and South London. She studied creative writing at Bath Spa and Goldsmiths University. Her first novel, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, the Commonwealth Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin literary award. In 2013 she was included on Granta Magazine's once a decade Best of Young British Novelists list.
Her second novel All the Birds, Singing won the Miles Franklin Award, the Encore Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize, the James Tait Black Prize and the Sky Arts Times Breakthrough Award and longlisted for the Stella Prize and the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction.
She runs Review, a small independent bookshop in Peckham, south London.
Read the Reviews
“The growing dread and terror reminded me of Daphe du Maurier...[Jake] is unlike any character I've seen in fiction...Wyld's concealment is artful...she trusts her readers to follow her...if the novel sounds forbiddingly dark it's not. It's swift and assured and emotionally wrenching...there's hope at the end, and wit, and friendship.”
“An astonishing novel. It evokes place, character and time with beauty and precision. From a desolate Australian sheep farm to a remote island in the UK, a young woman’s dark and violent past is told in reverse. There is grim humour and flashes of light but Wyld doesn’t flinch from the difficult. The story is compelling, the structure ambitious and the imagery vivid. This is one talented young writer.”
“Brilliantly unsettling...daring and fierce, this is a book that makes you feel the need to look over your shoulder in case something dark and hulking might be gaining on you.”
“A weird and wonderful novel about isolation, memory and a dog called Dog.”
“Wickedly captivating...it's nearly impossible not to get swept up in the game of merging the two stories by piecing together each clue...think "Room" or "Winter's Bone"-style creepy.”
“A dark, powerfully disturbing and beautifully observed story… A technical tour de force, almost Nabokovian in its structural intricacy… A tremendous achievement. I can’t wait for the next one”
“Suspenseful and melancholy…In alternating chapters, the story moves forward and backward in time—a narrative architecture that might seem gimmicky were it not for Wyld’s masterful control. There are also surprising moments of lightness—the protagonist’s dark humor, the author’s unsentimental reverence for the natural world.”
‘Nominated for numerous awards for her 2009 debut, After The Fire, A Still Small Voice, Wyld has now delivered an equally indelible and atmospheric second novel that will have the hairs on the back of your neck working overtime.’
“It’s not hard to see why Wyld is so feted: All The Birds, Singing is extraordinarily accomplished, one of those books that tears around in your cerebellum like a dark firework, and which, upon finishing, you immediately want to pick up again… For all its darknesses [it] gleams with humour and kindness, moments of humanity that redeem almost everyone in the book. As Jake comes to see, no man – or woman – can be an island forever, and the opportunity for redemption is part of what it is to be human: both granting it, and allowing it to be granted in turn.”
“One of the best books I read this year was Evie Wyld's darkly beautiful All the Birds, Singing. Wyld twists together the warp and weft of poetic language and plot to create a disquieting, deeply suspenseful novel. It lingered with me long after I finished it.”
“Wyld uses language that is purely gorgeous, even — perhaps especially — when underscoring dread...In the end, the hardness at Jake’s core and the stubborn isolation she has chosen are undercut by unexpected, softly radiant developments. There’s love as well as dread in this book, a surprising sort of love — the best kind of all.”
“Within a few short, sharp pages Wyld has set the tone for a hair-prickling thriller in which visceral, primal appetites appear equally the preserve of the human world as the animal one…Wyld [is an] expert at building an atmosphere of unplaceable menace, at blurring the lines between imagined and real horrors, of harnessing so effectively a feral, rural malignancy and, ultimately, at making a virtue of ambiguity…But it’s the quality of her prose that really blows your mind – lyrical without being cloying, full of violence and beauty, and when it needs to be, as spare as the unforgiving landscape of Jake’s adopted island.”
“With All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld merges into her mysterious tale of a lonely shepherdess a savage Australian back-story that lends a haunting extra dimension to a novel of troubling beauty.”
“The prose maintains a fine-tuned ominous mood, but the most impressive aspect of the novel is its structure. The story of Jake’s past life is told in reverse, in perfectly parceled episodes, and just when it seems we’ve reached the foundational trauma, we’re pulled further back into the unsettling past.”
“[Wyld’s] writing is precise, intense, haunting and poetic…no wonder she is attracting attention…This is a nuanced exploration of human suffering and resilience. Wyld’s writing seems to come from somewhere deep; somewhere a bit unnerving and odd. For once, the hype matches the talent.”
“Like a CSI for the sheep-farming set...compellingly psychological, even metaphysical at times...the clues Wyld leaves us are subtle enough that they only spring into view once we’ve reached the very end, like heat applied to a lemon juice ink. This is a powerful, sure-footed effort by a formidable young talent.”
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“Evie Wyld is the real thing… this one is terrific. Evie Wyld’s two books are quite as good as Ian McEwan’s early fiction. Expect to hear her name often from now on.”
“An atmosphere pungent with menace and panicked uncertainty.”
“I also found, in Evie Wyld's second novel, All the Birds, Singing, a voice indebted to [Iain] Banks and every bit as strange and compelling.”
“The most gripping mystery you'll read all year is about sheep. Utterly gripping . . . has the brisk pacing of a well-thumbed pocket paperback found in a summer cottage, and yet it’s the sort of book that gets listed as a best book of the year . . . The success of The Goldfinch was a perfect test case.”
“All the Birds, Singing should enhance her reputation as one of our most gifted novelists. Her pacing is impeccable and the trickle of information she marshals lends tension and compassion to Jake's troubled, solitary existence.”
‘It is no surprise that she has been included on every possible shortlist of talented young authors to look out for. Evie Wyld is the real thing.’
“Gloriously gruesome...the state of suspense becomes almost unbearable, and you rush through, feeling like you are sprinting through a museum of sinister curiosities, too frightened to linger.”
“Wyld has now delivered an equally indelible and atmospheric second novel that will have the hairs on the back of your neck working overtime...an intensely involving tale of survival, shot through with Wyld’s distinctive wit.”
“Broodingly lyrical…casts a spellbinding breadcrumb trail back in time to reveal the origins of her banishment—and the darker mysteries of human nature.”
“On the level of technical experiment, Wyld is a nonpareil… Wyld's image-making facility is as brilliant as the quality of her pity. I was reminded of Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone in the characterisation of the resourceful central character in a hostile male world…poetry of wit, pity and verbal virtuosity enlivens and deepens it.”
“Gorgeously vivid...Ripe material for a Jane Campion movie or miniseries.”
“A gracefully written, absorbing thriller from a new literary talent.”
“Impossibly balanced — gorgeous and graceful, dark and taut...I read “All the Birds, Singing” in two sittings; it’s the kind of book that just won’t let you go.”
“This is a tale of possible love and redemption, at once energetic and dark… when the birds do "sing", and Jake's primal tragedy is revealed, it is clever and very unexpected indeed.”
“Wyld [is] shaping up into a name to watch…her second novel is unsettling, dark and extraordinarily fresh…if you’ve been waiting for a cross between Nicola Barker and Christos Tsiolkas, this is it. Although, better than that, it’s an inimitable, original new voice. Can’t wait to read more.”
“Wyld has a skill for creating flawed characters you can’t help but root for.”
“The new queen of literary horror...you can believe the hype.”
“Unsettling, beautiful, horrifying and moving in equal parts, I haven’t read anything quite like All the Birds, Singing for a long time…Wyld’s beautiful, sparse prose, brings a warmth and colour to the tale…there is no disputing the power of the story and the beauty of Wyld’s writing. It is an extraordinary book…[a] bleak and beautiful masterpiece.”
“Completely and utterly monumental. Powerful and beautiful written…so much about the blood, the guts, the soil…it has a real muscularity to it…it’s very shocking as the story peels back and you look at the different layers of this very tough and admirable protagonist…a heroine trying to make it in a very tough world …I was a fan of Evie Wyld beforehand and this is such a leap forwards and an important book.”
“I was hugely impressed. It’s not just a grim book, it’s also very funny…Jake is the most beguiling voice…wonderful.”
“Wyld is a superb stylist…a beautiful way of writing about nature and the voices of her characters are absolutely spot on…it’s beautifully constructed…”
“The fearless Wyld deserves serious comparison [with fellow Australian writer Tim Winton].”
“A strange, disturbing and admirably original story… there are tantalising hints of menace.”
“All the Birds, Singing is assembled with great care and each sentence adds extra layers to the plot and the atmosphere. It’s bleak at times and full of raw emotions that can’t quite be fully communicated, but it is powerful and oddly beautiful.”
“There's a precision and power to her sentences that feels like the work of a much older writer. Her new book reminds me of Peter Carey: the language becomes part of the landscape and you don't feel an authorial self pressing down on the novel, but a deep authorial intelligence behind it.”
“All the Birds, Singing is a genuine literary thriller and showcases Wyld’s raw talent.”
“There are literary traces beneath the skin of Wyld’s prose – one feels the influence of an early Ian McEwan or Iain Banks. There’s something of Alan Warner’s Morvern Callar about Jake’s recalcitrance, and a Baskervillean note to the creepy wilderness scenes. But All the Birds, Singing is also powerfully original, strongest in its handling of the human and animal worlds, and the thin line between the two. ”
“Some novels are crafted with such care that it seems a shame reviewers should get to paw them before readers have the chance to admire their intricacy…when the disclosure arrives, it’s neither predictable nor anticlimactic…”
“Wyld's writing...is exquisite. An unusual novel that should win its author even more prizes.”
“Just sometimes, a book is so complete, so compelling and potent, that you are fearful of breaking its hold. This is one.”
“A talent to watch.”
“My favourite book this year was Evie Wyld's After the Fire, A Still Small Voice. Wyld has written a great and intelligent story, sophisticated and gripping, sad and gorgeous. Two men, two lives, a generation apart, their battlefields, and a bakery, and not a false note in the whole book. It's a stunner and Wyld is the real thing.”
“A very impressive first novel. Wise and wry, it uses its Australian bush setting to great effect, Wyld's protagonists fleeing there from wars, both literal and familial. She writes great characters and makes you love them as she nails them.”
“This is a highly accomplished first novel. Evie Wyld is not a show off writer. She has a clean, clear prose style which is exactly right in the service if her story, and the best ear for dialogue in a long time.”
“One of the most exquisitely rendered books - let alone debuts - I have read in years.”
“This superb first novel is about fathers and sons, and the forces that turn men brutish.”
“A fiercely assured debut.”
“Wyld has a feel both for beauty and for the ugliness of inherited pain.”
“Wyld is a languorous writer with great skill in characterisation. This, her debut, will delight many.”
“The landscape of Australia's east coast looms large in the book, wild and sinister, filled with light and tragedy. This is a sad and lovely novel from a talented new writer.”
“A terrifically self-assured debut...a cauterising, cleansing tale, told with muscular writing.”
“Mesmerising...this adroit examination of loss, lostness and trauma is the beginning of great things.”
“Written in pith, crystal-sharp prose, this is a compelling read that uses the Australian landscape to mirror its characters' equally unforgiving emotional terrain.”
“Told with quiet, characterful poise, the noel succeeds in evoking not only Australia's epic geographical landscape, but its literary terrain too summoning echoes of some of that country's finest writer.”
“Wyld's superb skills at portraying a hot, dusty landscape and her psychological insight will pull you inexorably in.”
“A searing study of the way war-induced damage passes from fathers to sons...Uniting the disparate narratives is Wyld's brisk, atmospheric style and her fascination with men who commit appalling acts, but are not appalling people.”
“This is a young writer with talent to burn.”
“Wyld's debut novel dissects the misery that seeps inexorably from one generation to the next.”
“Wyld can write very well, in a vivid descriptive style reminiscent of Tim Winton's.”
“An assured and astonishing debut novel.”
“Wyld sympathetically explores the blight of war and violence on three generations of a working-class Australian family.”
“Astonishingly assured...a stunning work from a brilliant new voice.”
“Creepy but gripping, it’s also a novel with a twist that doesn’t undermine everything that came before. Don’t be surprised if this debut starts cropping up at book groups - it deserves to.”
“Its richness of prose is evocative.”
“Superb assured first novel about fathers and sons. Pitch-perfect prose.”
“A jewel of a book.”
“At times startling, Wyld's book is ruminative and dramatic, with deep reserves of empathy colored by masculine rage and repression.”
“At last, in a world that shouts, a novel that doesn't need to. A revelation and a joy - wild, wise and wonderful.”
“Evie Wyld's book is dark, intense and haunting. The descriptions of Australia's East Coast are vivid, the landscapes, the language, the settings, the feelings are real and palpable. Her prose reminded me of Patrick White's, her imagery of Les Murray and Judith Wright -- like all these writers Wyld is both lyrical and tragic, uncompromising in her evocation of that sad, strange, complicated country. She belongs to a tradition of serious Australian literature that is now being taken as seriously as it deserves.”
“Stunningly good. Evie Wyld hides herself perfectly and it has a whole dark and brilliant life of its own. There's not a single false note in the whole book: it's totally convincing, and written with incredible toughness, sureness and maturity. A terrifyingly good debut.”
“A brilliant, transporting novel of such warmth and stunning evocative language that I wanted to read it all over again. Evie Wyld has a deft way of capturing the light, the nature of the place, of the natives. This is a rich account of two men's lives, separated through time and their own inability to reach out... Time does funny things in the book as it would in the desert; it undoes things, rather like this book has done to me.”
“It's a sensational debut, rich in literary fireworks and human drama. There are moments which still the breath - all you can hear is the sound of your own heart beating.”