'She is silent now because she is ten and she learns five new words a day and puts them in a sentence, but she has not yet reached the words for this...'
Ten years old and irrepressibly curious, Ellie lives with her fisherman father, Peter, on the wild North Yorkshire coast. It’s the 1980s and her mother’s breakdown is discussed only in whispers, with the promise ‘better by Christmas’ and no further explanation.
Steering by the light of her dad’s sea-myths, her mum’s memories of home across the water, and a fierce spirit all her own, Ellie begins to learn – in these sudden, strange circumstances – who she is and what she can become. By the time the first snowdrops show, her innocence has been shed, but at great cost.
This vivacious and deeply moving novel portrays adult breakdown through the eyes of a brightly imaginative child, sensitively explores questions of responsibility and care, and, above all, celebrates the power of stories to shape, nourish and even save us.
About the Author
Carmen Marcus lives in the Victorian spa town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Her writing has been described as ‘crackling dangerously with inherited magic yet achieving contemporary vitality’. She is in much demand as a performance poet and has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall. Recently she has been commissioned by BBC Radio 3’s Verb New Voices. How Saints Die is her first novel, and as a work in progress it won New Writing North's 'Northern Promise' Award.
Industry Reviews
The dramatic and metaphorical strands of Marcus's narrative are densely woven, and Ellie is a winning protagonist... But it is the sensitively drawn sorrows and vulnerabilities of the novel's adults that are perhaps most affecting -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *
A magic-tinged look at adult problems through the eyes of a child. * Emerald Street *
A soaring success; beautiful and devastating... In graceful prose, Marcus sketches an image of the North Yorkshire coast then adds the snap of the cold wind, the sting of sea spray, the hotness of welling tears. The book is stunningly evocative - of a time, of a place, of childhood, and of what it means not to fit in... This book is beautiful, from cover to core. * The Skinny *
A poignant and powerful exploration of mental health, poverty and identity, all seen through the eyes of a child... Marcus builds a compelling world which combines the mundane with the mystical, the domestic with the mythic... Marcus has created a memorable young heroine who possesses the same kind of innocent intelligence, forthright self-assurance and aching vulnerability as Harper Lee's Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird... A heart-warming and deeply affecting portrayal of a very special father-daughter relationship -- Yvette Huddleston * Yorkshire Post *
In How Saints Die Carmen Marcus announces herself as a powerful and original talent. This is a novel as restless, as seductive and as dangerous as the sea that forms the backdrop to the story, while in Ellie Fleck Marcus has created one of the great child protagonists. A compelling story with a warm heart written in language that is both vivid and raw. I loved this book. -- Stephen May
Remarkable and compelling... An incredibly moving, piercingly well-observed account of adult mental breakdown and its reverberations as seen from a child's perspective -- Yvette Huddleston * Yorkshire Post *
Carmen Marcus is a North Yorkshire poet, and I enjoyed her first novel, How Saints Die. Ten-year-old Ellie is the daughter of a fisherman who struggles to cope when her mum becomes unwell, and her narrative is haunted by seafarers' legends. -- Sarah Moss * Big Issue Books of the Years *
