My Name is Yip: Shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize

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In fact, I can be really patient in that regard, but with this book, nothing really of note happens till about page 84, so I thought, "Ok, now things will pick up," but when they didn't really with another 40 pages of reading, it's time to move on. Yip, who narrates as an adult, is an enthusiastic storyteller, and his relationship with Dud forms the fervent backbone of the episodic narrative. Short (I'm guessing 4 feet tall), completely hairless and mute, he's written off as an 'idiot' freak and not so much shunned as totally ignored. It was fun to see how Crewe imagined it almost 200 years earlier, with all modern manifestations removed. This is violent, anarchic American history with echoes of Sebastian Barry's Days Without End , but Paddy Crewe's take is startlingly original .

The American Mid West, October 1815, and Yip Tolroy announces his entry into the world in complete silence, with a cord wrapped around his tiny neck.She struggles to manage his needs, leaving Yip to find the means of asserting himself in an unforgiving, hostile environment. 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’m a huge lover of historical fiction and the Midwest has to be one of my fave time periods so I enjoyed being thrown back into it. The representation of charming travelling circus manager, Jim Coyne, draws sneakily from Fagan, the supposed protector of Oliver Twist. The timbre of Yip's voice and the constant movement of characters through desolate landscapes creates an energy that seduces the reader.

It also took me a little while to get used to the fact that the author doesn’t use quotation marks in conversations and the chapters are very very short (which is why there are 90+ chapters). While I was thoroughly entertained, that is not to say there isn't some substance to be found beneath all the action. But can Yip get back to Heron’s Creek, claim his gold, avenge his father and be reunited with his mother? I thought I would really like this book, it checks off so many items of interest, but I couldn't feel or muster any connection to what I was reading, unfortunately.

Yip Tolroy is one of the most unusual characters, in both senses of the word, that I have come across. As his mother still lies in the blood-slicked sheets, and Yip takes his first gulps of air, his father disappears without trace. However, when gold is discovered in the area, Yip commits a crime that forces him to go on the run and thus his arduous adventures in the Midwest begins.