King of the Badgers - A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011 One of The Telegraphs Best Fiction Books 2011 Far from Londons crime and pollution, Hanmouths wealthier residents live in picturesque, heavily mortgaged cottages in the center of a town packed with artisanal cheese shops and antiques stores. Theyre reminded of the towns less desirable outskirtswith their grim, flimsy housing stock and chain storesonly when their neighbors have the presumption to claim also to live in Hanmouth. When an eight-year-old girl from the outer area goes missing, Englands eyes suddenly turn toward the sleepy town with a curiosity as piercing and unblinking as the closed-circuit security cameras that line Hanmouths idyllic streets. But somehow these cameras have missed the abduction of the girl, whose name is China. Is her blank-eyed hairdresser mother hiding her as part of a moneymaking hoax? Has she been abducted by one of the lurking perverts the townspeople imagine the cameras are protecting them from? Perhaps more cameras are needed? As it turns out, more than one resident of Hanmouth has a secret hidden behind closed doors. Theres Sam and Harry, the cheesemonger and aristocrat who lead the countys gay orgies. The quiet husband of postcolonial theorist Miranda (everyone agrees shes marvelous) keeps a male lover, while their daughter disembowels dolls shes named Child Pornography and Slightly Jewish. Moral crusader John Calvins Neighborhood Watch has an unusual reason for holding its meetings in secret. And, of course, somewhere out there is the house where little China is hidden. With the dark hilarity and unflinching honesty of a modern-day Middlemarch, King of the Badgers demolishes the already fragile privacy of Hanmouths inhabitants. These characters, exquisitely drawn and rawly human, proclaim Philip Henshers status as an extraordinary chronicler of the domestic, and one of the worlds most dazzling and ambitious novelists.


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Book Details

 ⚡️Book Title : King of the Badgers
⚡Book Author : Philip Hensher
⚡Page : 436 pages
⚡Published September 13th 2011 by Faber & Faber (first published March 1st 2011)

King of the Badgers

A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book for 2011 One of The Telegraphs Best Fiction Books 2011 Far from Londons crime and pollution, Hanmouths wealthier residents live in picturesque, heavily mortgaged cottages in the center of a town packed with artisanal cheese shops and antiques stores. Theyre reminded of the towns less desirable outskirtswith their grim, flimsy housing stock and chain storesonly when their neighbors have the presumption to claim also to live in Hanmouth. When an eight-year-old girl from the outer area goes missing, Englands eyes suddenly turn toward the sleepy town with a curiosity as piercing and unblinking as the closed-circuit security cameras that line Hanmouths idyllic streets. But somehow these cameras have missed the abduction of the girl, whose name is China. Is her blank-eyed hairdresser mother hiding her as part of a moneymaking hoax? Has she been abducted by one of the lurking perverts the townspeople imagine the cameras are protecting them from? Perhaps more cameras are needed? As it turns out, more than one resident of Hanmouth has a secret hidden behind closed doors. Theres Sam and Harry, the cheesemonger and aristocrat who lead the countys gay orgies. The quiet husband of postcolonial theorist Miranda (everyone agrees shes marvelous) keeps a male lover, while their daughter disembowels dolls shes named Child Pornography and Slightly Jewish. Moral crusader John Calvins Neighborhood Watch has an unusual reason for holding its meetings in secret. And, of course, somewhere out there is the house where little China is hidden. With the dark hilarity and unflinching honesty of a modern-day Middlemarch, King of the Badgers demolishes the already fragile privacy of Hanmouths inhabitants. These characters, exquisitely drawn and rawly human, proclaim Philip Henshers status as an extraordinary chronicler of the domestic, and one of the worlds most dazzling and ambitious novelists.