The Dig

By Cynan Jones

2014

First Published

3.90

Average Rating

165

Number of Pages

5H02M

Audio Length

This is a searing short novel, built of the interlocking fates of a badger-baiter and a disconsolate farmer, unfolding in a stark rural setting where man, animal, land and weather are at loggerheads. Their two paths converge with tragic inevitability. Jones writes of the physiology of grief and the isolation of loss with brilliance, and about the simple rawness of animal existence with a naturalist's unblinking eye. His is a pared-down prose of resonant simplicity and occasional lushness. His writing about ducks and dogs and cows is axe-sharp. There is not a whiff of the bucolic pastoral or the romanticized sod here. This is a real rural ride. It is short, but crackles with latent compressed energy that makes it swell to fill more space than at first glance it occupies.

Avg Rating

3.90

Number of Ratings

1,859

5 STARS

29%

4 STARS

43%

3 STARS

21%

2 STARS

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Cynan Jones

Author · 8 books

Cynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales where he now lives and works. He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, The Dig, and Cove. He has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous international prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award (2007), a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize (2014), the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize (2015) and the BBC National Short Story Award (2017). His work has been published in more than twenty countries, and short stories have appeared on BBC Radio 4 and in a number of anthologies and publications including Granta Magazine and The New Yorker. He also wrote the screenplay for an episode of the BAFTA-winning crime drama Hinterland, and Three Tales, a collection of stories for children. The Independent on Sunday declared "There is no doubt that Jones is one of the most talented writers in Britain” and he is frequently acknowledged as one of the most exciting voices of his generation. His most recent work, Stillicide, is a collection of twelve stories commissioned by BBC Radio 4 that aired over the summer 2019. He is also responsible for 'The Fart'.