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.
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 *