Mercia'S Take
Daniel Wiles, Wiles, Daniel
Winner of the Betty Trask Prize 2023
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Release Date: 06/10/2022
Winner of the Betty Trask Prize 2023 'A brilliant debut' Guardian 1870s, the Black Country. Michael is a miner. But it’s no life for a man. Michael exhausts himself working two jobs, to send his son Luke to school, so he won’t have to be a miner too. Down the pit one day, he finds a seam of gold. If he gets it out, he can save his own life, and Luke's. But his workmate has other ideas… Mercia’s Take summons an England in the heat of the industrial revolution, and the lives it took to make it. Gripping, powerful and intense, it is the debut of an astonishing new talent.
Mercia's Take summons an England in the heat of the industrial revolution, and the lives it took to make it. Gripping, powerful and intense, it is the debut of an astonishing new talent.
'Energy and passion fuels this harsh and beautiful first novel; Daniel Wiles connects us viscerally to the past we have buried, the history we choose to ignore' - Hilary Mantel