My Name is Yip

This is violent, anarchic American history with echoes of Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End, but Paddy Crewe’s take is startlingly original… Yip’s tale is immersive and beautiful in unexpected places. On the strength of this sensational debut, you will be hearing a lot more about Paddy Crewe. * The Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Month *
Paddy Crewe’s ambitious, cinematic debut novel set during Georgia’s gold rush in a semi-mythic American south that recalls both Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses and Faulkner’s Light in August… A rollicking, page-turning wild west adventure, populated by a cast of arresting grotesques, with luminous imagery and an unforgettable protagonist… A remarkably vivid and energetic debut novel; a consummate linguistic performance. * Guardian *
Recalls the first-person conjuration of Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang and the brutality and lyricism of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses… A thrilling bildungsroman adventure, full of reversals of fortune and getaways. * New Statesman *
Bold and impressive… This is a book with a distinct rhythm. The timbre of Yip’s voice and the constant movement of characters through desolate landscapes creates an energy that seduces the reader. Crewe is an author of huge imaginative range. * Literary Review *
My Name is Yip is so utterly itself and vivid. I haven’t read anything quite like it. A mesmeric and rollicking adventure told by a narrator like no other - one who beguiles, moves, delights and also had me so worried for him, I was on the edge of my seat. Bold, thrilling, beautifully conceived and deeply atmospheric. I can’t recommend it enough. Superb to the last full stop. * Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry *
Mute but eloquent, Yip comes thrillingly into our midst to unfurl his singular and singing book of revelations. Murder, gold, lost fathers… Paddy Crewe has a 24-carat gift * Sebastian Barry, author of Days Without End *
Magnificent. My Name is Yip is a sheer joy. What a voice, what a story. Yip is an incredible character, up there with Owen Meany and Holden Caulfield for sheer unforgettableness. It’s a glorious novel. * Donal Ryan, author of Strange Flowers *
Yip Tolroy may not speak, but his voice soars off the page in Paddy Crewe’s terrific debut novel. Both an entertaining tale of gold, murder and the impulse for revenge, and a tender coming-of-age story amid the lawlessness of the American frontier. * Paul Howarth, author of Only Killers and Thieves *
I love the compelling narrator, somehow a cross between Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield and Charles Portis’s Mattie Ross. And like True Grit, Yip takes us on a wild ride. * Michael Punke, author of The Revenant and Ridgeline *
My Name is Yip accelerates into a wild gallop. There are pleasures (and horrors too) in this picaresque of a plot, but its real power lies in Yip’s distinctive voice. From his first words he springs from the page, entirely himself and impossible to resist. An exuberant and original debut. * Clare Clark, author of Savage Lands *

Paddy Crewe was born in Middlesbrough and studied at Goldsmiths. His debut novel, My Name Is Yip, has been shortlisted for the Betty Trask, the Wilbur Smith, a South Bank Sky Arts Award and The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize.

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