Turning Serpentine

Set on The Lizard (An Lysardhin the Cornish language), the remote southernmost peninsula of the island of Britain – bound in Celtic myth and legend, and   entwined with sacred geometry – Alan M. Kent’s provocative new novel examines the ancient profession of craftsmen who work and turn the unique, patterned stone found there, known as serpentine. It begins with the war-time discovery of newly-born twins, who are found abandoned and afloat upon the ocean, and culminates in a beautiful but haunting love story of people placed on the very edge of life. Kent combines this narrative with a set of compellingly original characters, all the time reminding us that communication can transport us to new worlds and relationships, yet the lack of it (ironically on a Cape famed for Marconi and its telecommunications history) can also maim and destroy. In this novel, Cornish people, their challenges, heritage and landscape are conjured up with uncanny poetry and perceptiveness. On this far tip of the known world, the Christian and Pagan fuse; the sea and land merge as one. The story offered is both tender and cruel, and Kent –Winner of the 2018 Holyer an Gof Prize for Fiction – writes with a passionate sincerity about his people. Seizing on folktale, fairy story and some-times narrative that is magical and outlandish, he creates a new fable for Cornwall.