The Dumb House
English
By (author): John Burnside
As a child, Lukes mother often tells him the story of the Dumb House, an experiment on newborn babies raised in silence, designed to test the innateness of language.
As Luke grows up, his interest in language and the delicate balance of life and death leads to amateur dissections of small animals tiny hearts revealed still pumping, as life trickles away. But as an adult, following the death of his mother, Lukes obsession deepens, resulting in a haunting and bizarre experiment on Lukes own children.
A wonderfully disturbing book - chillingly focused and lyrically amoral with moments of remarkable stillness and beauty. A.L. Kennedy
Burnside's prose is exquisite, and he dissects his themes with delicacy to produce a novel resonant with poetic menace Sunday Times