The Axeman’s Carnival: The No. 1 International Bestseller

In this darkly comic work of literary satire by New Zealand’s most acclaimed and best-selling novelist Tama, a talking magpie and social media influencer, is the sole witness to a marriage in freefall. Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie. ‘If it keeps me awake,’ says Marnie’s husband Rob, a farmer in the middle of a years-long drought, ‘I’ll have to wring its neck.’ But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple’s future. Tama’s fame is growing, and with it, his earning potential. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds – and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them – bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman’s Carnival. Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama is the star of this story. And although what he says to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious), the tale he tells makes disturbingly perfect sense. The Axeman’s Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest – comic, profound, poetic and true.

About the Author :
Catherine Chidgey’s novels have been published to international acclaim. Her first, In a Fishbone Church, won Best First Book at the New Zealand Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific). In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second, Golden Deeds, was a Notable Book of the Year in The New York Times Book Review and a Best Book in the LA Times. Catherine has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize for The Wish Child. She lives in Ngāruawāhia and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Her novel Remote Sympathy was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Review :
"Questions of knowing and refusing to know, seeing but not believing, scratch at us in Chidgey’s pages. Perhaps never more effectively — or entertainingly — than in The Axeman’s Carnival." "Do not be put off by the fact that The Axeman’s Carnival is narrated by a magpie; whimsy is entirely absent from this highly original, thrillingly dark and often very funny." “The Axeman’s Carnival is a compulsive read and flat-out brilliant.” “Chidgey elegantly weaves together social commentary, magic realism, folklore and myth, and her treatment of serious themes is deft. A deeply engaging novel with an original and remarkably charming star.” "The Axeman’s Carnival offers a shrewd look at human foibles through the eyes of a talking magpie called Tama. This novel is an imaginative treat." "A precocious magpie takes a bird’s-eye view of patriarchy." "Funny, dark, insightful and unique, this beautifully written novel is a story and a magpie you will NEVER forget." "I didn’t think it was possible to fall in love with a magpie, but from the opening chapter, which is a masterclass in prose, to the final scene, I was spellbound by the foul-mouthed, wisecracking Tama and his quest to save gentle Marnie from unspeakable violence. Another tour de force from Catherine Chidgey." "The Axeman’s Carnival" is both tense and disconcertingly charming. The story is filled with delightful moments but tightens with frightening inevitability to a shocking conclusion." "The Axeman’s Carnival's central conceit – a magpie taken in by a farmer’s wife living on a remote sheep station learns to speak back a form of narrative that mirrors the events taking place in her marriage – is thrilling, beautifully rendered and pitch perfect." “A remarkable and original writer, whose novels have the golden combination of being both riveting and superbly-written.” “The work of a writer absolutely on top of her game, narrated with linguistic brio by a magpie chick, who tells the story of her human rescuer Marnie’s escape from a violent marriage.” “The Axeman’s Carnival is remarkable, brilliant, a classic in the making.” “One of our very best novelists knocks it out of the park.” “Chidgey’s writing is masterful, and the underlying sense of dread as the story unfolds is shot through with humour and humanity. The Axeman’s Carnival is unique: poetic, profound and a powerfully compelling read from start to finish.” "The Axeman’s Carnival is a stunning and captivating story about the pressures of farming life and the meaning of family, and Chidgey is at the absolute top of her game." "Told in the voice of a magpie, with humour and wisdom, this unflinching portrait of nature picks at the thin veil between the elemental violence and drama of both human and animal worlds." "As unsettling as it is entertaining, the brilliantly written voice and antics of Tama, carry the story forward, poking fun and provoking an already tense situation, until its splintering, scorching conclusion. Highly Recommended." “Thrilling, beautifully rendered and pitch perfect.”