Reasons She Goes to the Woods

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

'Exquisite... To be marvelled at.' Guardian

Shortlisted for the Encore Award

Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

Pearl can be very, very good. More often she is very, very bad. But she's just a child, a mystery to all who know her. A little girl who has her own secret reasons for escaping to the nearby woods. What might those reasons be? And how can she feel so at home in the dark, sinister, sensual woods, a wonder of secrets and mystery?

Told in vignettes across Pearl's childhood years, Reasons She Goes to the Woods is a nervy but lyrical novel about a normal girl growing up, doing the normal things little girls do.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Davies's (True Things About Me) second novel chronicles the pre-teen and teen-age years of a troubled and often cruel girl named Pearl. Seen through her imaginative (hallucinatory?) eyes, the story takes the form of single-page episodes appearing only on the right hand page of the book, the left remaining virtually blank. Is Davies suggesting the need to take a breather between vignettes? Considering Pearl's gasp-inducing, hurtful acts and her own frequent heartbreak, this would be understandable. Pearl alternates between abandoning her baby brother, whom she calls The Blob, and being his supporter; between physically torturing her friends and craving them. Her negligent parents are helpless-the mother hobbled by demons and the loving father exhausted by Mom's madness. Raw, lyrical, sad, this haunting story packs a deceivingly strong punch. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.