I Am Sovereign

__________________________________________ 'One of the funniest, most finely achieved comic novels, even by her own standard … I think it’s a masterpiece .' ALI SMITH ‘I think Nicola Barker is incapable of a dull page. [Her work] is unified by its spirit of adventure.’ KEVIN BARRY How long does it take to change the world? Could it happen in approximately twenty minutes? Charles, a forty-year-old teddy bear maker, is trying to sell his late mother's house, helped by his estate agent Avigail (who thinks Charles is an imbecile). The prospective buyers: the fearsome Wang Shu - who has no desire to make idle chit-chat - and her downtrodden daughter, Ying Yue. During the twenty-minute viewing a huge number of things happen, although it is also entirely possible that nothing happens at all. Which is it? Can the world really turn on its axis during a mundane discussion about cheese preservation? Has fiction the power to do that? Should it even want to? __________________________________________ ' She really is a genius.’ GUARDIAN ‘Life-affirming hilarity – Evelyn Waugh on ecstasy.’ NELL ZINK 'A madly brilliant little book that asks who at any point is in control of what. I loved it.' DAILY MAIL ‘ Nicola Barker’s wildness and capacity for the absurd often delight me .’ SARAH MOSS ‘ What an audacious writer Nicola Barker is … In an era when plot is king, Barker has typically, joyously, dispensed with one … Barker’s pleasure in the novella feels defiant .’ EVENING STANDARD ‘ I Am Sovereign is bursting with energy, compassion and humour .’ LITERARY REVIEW ‘ Barker is a writer in a class of her own … A work of coruscating intelligence, of deep humanity .’ OBSERVER ‘ A riotous burst of a novel that scrutinises the nature of fiction with the lightest of touches .’ MAIL ON SUNDAY ‘ A bracing, brilliantly bonkers comic novel … This is freewheeling fiction that delights in the visual .’ SUNDAY TIMES ‘ Barker’s writing is very, very funny, both ha ha and strange ... Fans of Ali Smith’s “Seasonal Quartet” will enjoy a similarly arch, detached view on the banality of contemporary Britain ... A gloriously audacious blend of, well, the deep and the trite .’ INDEPENDENT