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  • Published: 5 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781473510364
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

Mercury Falling




In the post-war chill, people will do almost anything to stay alive.

'Shows once more Edric’s unassuming yet remarkable talent for conjuring up the lives of his characters' The Sunday Times


The Fenlands, 1954

It is a tough winter; the temperatures have fallen too low too quickly and the floods are the worst anyone can remember.

Most people have lost everything but there are some who have found themselves eager for the chance at a new start. For Jimmy Devlin, it’s a little of both.

Forced from his home by an uncompromising bailiff, Jimmy has nothing to his name and the prospect of work digging urgently needed drains could be the opportunity he’s been waiting for. But Jimmy, it seems, has a knack for finding trouble. Before long, he’s caught up in the wrong business with the people from the fairground passing through town. But, on the run from the law, he has nowhere else to turn.

With his keen eye and trademark candour, Robert Edric takes his readers to the most desolate of places, to explore what a man is capable of doing when he has nothing left to lose.

  • Published: 5 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781473510364
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

About the author

Robert Edric

Robert Edric was born in 1956. His novels include Winter Garden (James Tait Black Prize winner 1986), A New Ice Age (runner-up for the Guardian Fiction Prize 1986), The Book of the Heathen (winner of the WH Smith LIterary Award 2000), Peacetime (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2002), Gathering the Water (longlisted for the Booker Prize 2006) and In Zodiac Light (shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize 2010). His most recent novel is Sanctuary. He lives in Yorkshire.

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Praise for Mercury Falling

Shows once more Edric’s unassuming yet remarkable talent for conjuring up the lives of his characters

The Sunday Times

A darkly disturbing novel

Hull Daily Mail

A masterly, highly evocative, multi-layered tale

Mail on Sunday (Eire)

A wonderfully edgy piece of wartime noir

D.J. Taylor, Independent

Edric's world, though often unsavoury, is also curiously compelling. Lured into its shady precincts, you're unlikely to want to leave.

David Grylls, Sunday Times

Fabulously atmospheric

Bookseller

Macabre twists keep the pages turning

James Urquhart, Financial Times