I am a big fan of Patrick’s first novel, The Sisters Brothers – highly recommend if you haven’t already read it. It’s a darkly funny and slightly odd take on old westerns.
Undermajordomo Minor is also wonderfully weird but in its approach to fairytales.
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is sorely out of place in his village of Bury. Friendless and loveless, Lucy is a compulsive liar and a weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Sick of feeling out of place and being unloved even by his own parents, Lucy applies to a job as the Undermajordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
While tending to his new post, Lucy soon discovers the place harbours many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle’s master, Baron Von Aux. He also encounters the oh so colourful characters of the local village-thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a beautiful woman whose love Lucy must compete for with the exceptionally handsome soldier, Adolphus.
Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven says “Undermajordomo Minor wears a fairytale cloak, but at its wondrous and fantastical heart lies an unexpectedly moving story about love, home, and the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world. Elegant, beautifully strange, and utterly superb.”
Anyone interested in a galley, let us know.
- Annie