Twenty Thousand Saints

Archaeologist Deian returns to the island of his childhood, where his mother disappeared without a trace. Sister Viv, closet heretic and host of the annual conference of hermits, has erected for her a gold memorial declaring her unofficial sainthood. Documentary-maker Leri, meanwhile, is pursuing a story she is keeping from her assistant and lover, Greta. This has less to do with birds and saints’ bones than with real bloodshed. During one hot August week, lives collide as Bardsey twirls once more for the cameras. A black comedy about finds, losses, secrets, privacy and intrusion... and how the most important things always happen off-camera.



Oxfam Hay Emerging Writer of the Year, 2009.



"The most compelling novel I’ve read in years; a love story, a thriller, and a profound meditation on language and identity... my fiction pick of the [festival] year."

Peter Florence, Guardian Hay Festival



“A wild, exhilarating read.”

Catherine Taylor, The Guardian, 27/9/08



"Sarah Waters, Kate Atkinson, Zoe Heller and Fflur Dafydd... [part of] the blossoming and triumphs of a whole new generation of young women writers."

Peter Florence, The Western Mail, May 2009



"Bristles with imagery, yet moves with the languid pace of island life through language and culture, myth and misunderstanding, sexuality and privacy. It is warm, witty, intelligent, perceptive and beautifully crafted. [Dafydd] has the precision of a thriller writer while always in full command of her disparate characters."

The Western Mail



"Brilliant... one of the best reads for decades."

Peter Finch, The Western Mail



2008 Pick of the Year. "Fflur Dafydd’s compelling novel merits five or six hours of pleasure and attention."

Prospect Magazine, Jan 2009



“Wry and tender... about the relationship between nature and civilisation... relationships... the lure of being alone... [and] necessary uncertainty.” Anna Kiernan, New Welsh Review



"Proof that Welsh writing is going through another of its frequent golden ages - hip young things ripping up and remaking Cymru Cymraeg and English Wales in ever more fascinating ways, unbound by Celtic Twilightism or dour socialist realism."

plashingvole.blogspot.com, Feb 2009



Welsh Women to Watch in 2009, Mslexia, Jan 2009



**** Four Star Review: "[Fflur] Dafydd is a magical writer and an acute observer of human nature. What a joy to find such a languorous piece of Sapphic speculation in the opening pages of this wonderful novel!"

Diva Magazine (Oct 2008)



"An exciting and thought provoking novel about love, lust and secrets."

Waterfront Magazine



"The prose is luminous and Dafydd writes with a poet’s eye…a beautifully crafted piece of writing imbued with a strange power to hold the attention of the reader on the eternal questions of love, loss, communication, passion and what it is to be alive. Anyone with an interest in the human condition should have it on their shelves." Dai Blatchford, Swansea Life, Oct 2008



“Mischief and madness are found in all ... places on the ... Bardsey Island of this novel ... Fflur Dafydd’s poetic narrative breathes life into her ... characters ... unearth[ing] each [one’s] ... secret, and compel[ling] the reader to dig deeper. Twenty Thousand Saints is a dark, comedic thriller that explores intense bonds between people and their loved ones ... a gripping read.”

Abi Rhodes, The Spokesman Journal (December 2008)



"A whipcracking mystery ... also exploring sex, friendship and love in an island setting that is both claustrophobic and inhibition-freeing ... Bardsey Island is the novel's main character, its depiction inspiring the reader to go there themselves ... most impressive is the awkwardness and longing the characters grapple with as they face their departure."

Elin Llwyd Morgan, Barn



Prizes:

Oxfam Hay Emerging Writer of the Year, 2009; Iowa International Writing Program fellow, 09; Prospect Pick of the Year, 08; MsLexia Woman to Watch, 09 ~Publisher: Y Lolfa

Set almost entirely on Bardsey Island, Fflur Dafydd’s ambitious third novel (her first in English) swiftly and deftly draws the reader into a web of deception and discovery in which it is often teasingly difficult to tell who is the spider and who the fly. Self-seeking documentary-maker Leri has come to Bardsey in the hope of engineering a dramatic dénouement and a BAFTA; archaeologist Deian is pretending to look for the bones of saints but finds himself unearthing some very personal skeletons instead; writer-in-residence Mererid is ‘somehow blocked from herself’, sliding relentlessly towards a marriage she doesn’t really want. Elin and Viv, the bright young ecologist and the mature hermit nun, appear to be rather more at ease with themselves and the world, providing a humour and vitality that lightens the tone of claustrophobic self-obsession. But, when the island’s prodigal son returns, the fragile web of relationships and reality begins to shudder and fray.



The shifts, both subtle and seismic, in Dafydd’s plot and narrative are anchored by the solid physical presence of Bardsey Island, which is so vividly portrayed here that it emerges as a pivotal character in its own right. The island’s few permanent, long-term inhabitants are blessed with a straightforward pragmatism that is born of their close relationship with the environment and serves as a foil to the complexities and neuroses acted out by the cast of temporary visitors, each of whom arrives on the island with a powerful personal agenda and no small amount of internal baggage.



Twenty Thousand Saints is steeped not just in Bardsey’s ancient and unique history but also in the great tradition of island stories, from Defoe to Golding. In their isolation, Dafydd’s characters duly surprise, delight, disappoint and disgust, without ever quite losing the reader’s empathy. ~Suzy Ceulan Hughes @ www.gwales.com