Published in 2020
256 pages
Liz Hyder is a writer, creative workshop leader and freelance arts PR consultant. She has been part of Writing West Midlands’s Room 204 writer development programme since 2016. In early 2018, she won The Bridge Award/ Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award. Bearmouth is her first novel. Named The Times Children’s Book of the Year in 2019, Bearmouth was the Waterstones Children’s Book for Older Readers 2020 and the winner of the Branford Boase Award 2020.
What is this book about?
Life in Bearmouth is one of hard labor and isolation, the sunlit world far above the mine a distant memory. Newt has lived in the mine since the age of four, and accepts everything from the harsh working conditions to the brutality of the mine’s leaders—until the mysterious Devlin arrives and dares to ask the question, “Why?” As tensions rise, Newt is soon looking at Bearmouth with a fresh perspective—challenging the system and setting in motion a change of events that could destroy their entire world.
An utterly distinctive voice, propulsive and page-turning storytelling, high stakes, heart-stopping twists, and a sense of moral purpose make Bearmouth an unforgettable and unparalleled debut.
