Work Like Any Other: Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize - Softcover

"Beautifully written, this is an unusual and moving debut." * Sunday Times * "A slow-burning pleasure... Wonderful... Brutal, beautiful, and, to some significant extent, redemptive." * Daily Mail * "Virginia Reeves' assured and absorbing debut novel is a potent mix of icy honesty and heart-wrenching tenderness; it is certainly a Work Unlike Any Other, in that its humanity and optimism are salvaged from the darkest of places, from prison cells, from mining shafts, from decomposing marriages, and from the unforgiving workings of the land." -- Jim Crace, author of Harvest and Being Dead "The world of this exquisite novel - 1920s Alabama - hasn't let go of me since I finished it. It's gorgeous, painful, original, and so true in all its details. Reeves writes with incredibly intelligent compassion, and in Roscoe Martin has created an extraordinary man who more than earns his place among the complicated population of the literary South. Thick with dread and beauty, this is a stunning chronicle of a time, a place, and a mind." -- Fiona McFarlane, author of The Night Guest "How brilliantly Virginia Reeves brings to life her protagonist, Roscoe T Martin, with his hatred of farming, his love of electricity and his long struggle to make amends to himself, his family and his friends. Work Like Any Other is a novel of fierce beauty and hard-won redemption. A wonderful debut." -- Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy "Work Like Any Other is an exceptional novel told in clear, direct, and starkly beautiful language. Virginia Reeves has a gift for bringing to life all the tensions that emerge wherever people, place, and progress collide. I absolutely loved it." -- Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds "A striking debut about love and redemption, the heavy burdens of family and guilt and learning how to escape them. Powerfully told and lyrically written, there is not a false note in this book. Reeves is a major new talent." -- Philipp Meyer, author of The Son

Alabama in the 1920s. Roscoe T Martin is finding it hard to adjust to his new life running his wife's family farm when he hits upon an idea : to build his own power lines and siphon electricity from the state. Suddenly the world feels alive with possibility - even the love of his wife Marie and their child seems back in his grasp. Then everything changes. A young man is electrocuted and killed on Roscoe's lines and Roscoe is arrested...