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Cynan Jones

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The Dig Paperback – November 6, 2014

by Cynan Jones (Author)

4.1 156 ratings

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Deep in rural Wales, a farmer is struggling through lambing season when he becomes aware that his land is being stalked by a badger-baiter who brings with him the stark threat of violence. Built of the interlocking fates of these two solitary men, this is a searing story of isolation and loss, from a writer of uncommon gifts.

Print length

176 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Granta Books
Publication date

November 6, 2014
Dimensions

5.2 x 0.4 x 7.7 inches
ISBN-10

1847088805
ISBN-13

978-1847088802
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

CYNAN JONES was born near Aberaeron, Wales in 1975. His previous novels are The Long Dry (winner of a Betty Trask Award in 2007), Everything I Found on the Beach, and the retelling of a Welsh myth Bird, Blood, Snow. In 2013, the chapter 'The Dig' from this novel was shortlisted for the Sunday Times/EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Granta Books; UK ed. edition (November 6, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1847088805
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1847088802
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.4 x 7.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12,857 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #52,177 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.1 156 ratings

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Cynan Jones

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Cynan Jones was born in Wales in 1975. He is the author of five novels, and has written stories for BBC Radio, a screenplay for the TV crime drama Hinterland, and a collection of tales for children. Other writing has appeared in numerous anthologies, national newspapers, and in journals and magazines including Granta and The New Yorker.

He has been longlisted for the Kirkus Prize (U.S.), the Warwick Prize, and the European Literature Prize (Netherlands); shortlisted for the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Prize, Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award; and won the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize, a Betty Trask Award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, and the BBC National Short Story Award.

For more information visit www.cynanjones.com

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

156 global ratings

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Grandpa M

Empathy

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015

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From the first words of "The Dig" to, I found it difficult to stop reading such a powerful realistic novel that generated an archetypical transcendent vision that strengthens the truth that we are most completely united, bound by our place within nature. The intricate complexities of the relationship between nature, man, and human nature are rarely made so clearly comprehended and done so in a way that makes more clear that our only truly understandable salvation lies in a mutual empathy that we may or my not be capable of achieving.

2 people found this helpful

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Sunny1

True look at country living, sadness and all

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2016

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This book gives a true and gritty look at farm living -- it is not simple, happy, easy. EVER. I really loved the emotions this book stirred in me. I really, really liked it. Four stars because it was a bit hard in places to figure out changing "voices" but the story is one I would recommend.

2 people found this helpful

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stephanie

Superb!

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2015

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This short novel digs deep. Dark and mesmerizing. I loved it. Knowing the story now, I plan to read it a second time, slower, for the beauty of the writing.

One person found this helpful

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KRW1988

Worth a read

Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015

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A quick little read, with sparse writing and an enticing story. The ending is a little muddled for my liking, but it's hard to find any other faults in this dark tale. Recommended.

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Book Knurd

Simple. Brutal. Good.

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2018

The Dig by Cynan Jones is a difficult book. It is difficult to read (certain passages), difficult to embrace and, ultimately, difficult to assess.

The Dig tells the seemingly unrelated stories of two stoic and tight-lipped men living simple and industrious lives in rural Wales. Each is burdened by the weight of earlier misfortunes and/or missteps. Their inability to express themselves manifests in very dark and heavy scars (figuratively speaking). Their somber deportment lead you to conclude that there is no good fortune in their futures. Such is the nature of these men in these circumstances, you reckon.

Even without being told, you know there is a cross-road somewhere ahead. You know the stories must intersect. You know there is no happy ending. What you don’t know is how Jones will get you from here to there and to what torments you might be subjected along the way. And, bigger picture, you don’t know to what extent you might understand either man and/or accept his fate when the dust settles. Questions you’ll only find suggestions of answers to at the end.

I’ve read that some liken Jones to Cormac McCarthy. I agree. Simplistic. Brutal. Every word and phrase seemingly carefully considered. And, like many of McCarthy’s works, The Dig will not be for everyone. Couple the fact that a stark, moody and severe story with an important component rooted in something many will find objectionable or unnecessary and you’ve pretty much alienated those that prefer stories of a more everyday and commonplace nature - that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I stumbled on The Dig when researching another title I was led down a rather lengthy and elaborate rabbit hole with an exit (entrance?) somewhere near Aberaeron, Wales. I’m very glad I kept digging.

One person found this helpful

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doug

Classic Allegorical Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2014

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A masterful tale. Man versus Nature. Man versus Man. Pared-down writing full of stark beauty and harsh truths. I loved it.

4 people found this helpful

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MinneapolisMac

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2016

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Wonderfully written and beautifully told. Loved it.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

One Star

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016

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Horrible Subject Matter

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DOMIFA

Roman rustique ecrit dans un style remarquable

Reviewed in France on July 29, 2017

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Bizarre mais intéressant. Parler de chasse au blaireau semble surprenante. Les chiens au caractère dissemblable complètent le portrait de 2 pseudo héros. L un est la brutalité absolue et l autre émouvant et blessé après la mort de sa femme. Roman rustique et sobre. La rencontré va t elle avoir lieu ?

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Queef Richards

A very lucky find

Reviewed in Japan on April 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

I bought this by mistake, thinking that it was the book that the film was based on (now I know that one's by John Preston), but what a good mistake it turned out to be,
It's simplistic to say that Cynan's a kind of Welsh Cormack McCarthy, as there are some similarities with the simple style and unemotional violence, but there is much more warmth, and I found it very moving.
It may help that I'm a Welsh ex-pat, and the descriptions of the countryside brought back many memories for me, but I found it succinct, very well-written, unpretentious and satisfying.
I'll definitely be reading more of his work.

Robert Alan Davidson

a short novel with a big heart

Reviewed in Canada on May 1, 2015

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This is an amazing book with some of the best writing I've encountered in some time. What the world will think of it probably depends upon how people will react to the ending. It ends abruptly. The narrative is moving along nicely and you're wondering about the inevitable clash between the "big man" and Daniel. You also notice the unread pages are getting to be very few and you wonder how many literary tricks Mr. Jones will have to perform to pull it all together. Short answer: none. It simply ends. Disappointment is the initial reaction; this book shouldn't end here. But you then imagine that the author knew exactly what he was doing and, in a literary sense, was subjecting us to the same kind of shock and loss that Daniel experienced with his wife. In any case, it's a short gathering of some wonderful writing and a wondrous evocation of living close to the land and nature. When they smell the earth, you can imagine them building their world around it. Finally, live with the ending (I suspect the publisher had the idea for the postscript). It will encourage you to read the book again to enjoy those finely polished sentences and the love of a man and a woman.

ACB(swansea)

Excellent Dramatic Novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2014

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This remarkable novel is set in a remote Welsh farm. The opening describes the brutal finishing off of a badger that has been ripped to shreds by the terriers of the unnamed 'big man'. He seems to derive a sadistic pleasure in his terriers' mutilation of the badger and with his own boot skull-cracking, then running over the animal in the road to make it look like a traffic accident. He is an unscrupulous badger digger who is handsomely paid for bringing townies in for the dig and selling them to be tortured in private fights with dogs in the company of a paying, betting audience. This cruel illicit 'sport' is graphically described by Cynan Jones without sparing any of the gruesome details.

He lives nearby Daniel, an exhausted farmer in the lambing season, struggling financially and trying to cope with the sudden traumatic death of his wife three weeks earlier. He is in denial as he constantly feels her presence and says 'I can hold onto her. I can hold on to her inside'. Working alone, not eating or sleeping, he is more at home in the sheep shed filled with lambing ewes he finds 'maternal and quiet' as opposed to the house where he fantasises his wife is still in bed. He frequently recalls his life with her on the farm in a way that she is still with him. He delivers a malformed lamb and cannot take his father's advice when he was farming that sometimes a decision has to be made between a quick misery or a slow misery. Daniel is unable to choose. He later has no choice with a ewe that would die without swift action from Daniel.

As a boy, Daniel accompanies his father on his first dig, watching the cruelty of flushing out a dazed badger and the blooded, wounded, exhausted terriers sent into the sett. Daniel loves the farm and the surrounding farm scenery, strikingly described by Jones in beautiful, economical prose. Daniel and the big man only meet a few times. Both are at one with the land albeit in different ways and the outcome of their meetings can only end in one way as the 'big man' advances on a Sett on Daniel's farm thinking he is away. Their characters are well-drawn and very realistic.

Cynan Jones has written a powerful, intense and evocative novel of a way of life that has an immediate and lasting impression on the reader. Brilliant.

7 people found this helpful

Andrew G. Marshall

The best and worst of men on display in one book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2018

Verified Purchase

A masculine book in every sense of the word. The prose is spare and muscular (although it can be poetic too in its own intense brooding way). The story is lean. Basically two men with different lives whose paths cross and everything changes. (I won't say more for fear of spoiling the plot). One man is a farmer and a grieving husband, the other on the edge of society - scratching together a living in ways barely legal and definitely illegal. What is on display is the best and the worst of masculinity. On one hand, there is hard work, sheer bloody minded determination to see through a job and the love of a good woman. On the other, cruelty, inability to ask for help, self-destructiveness and that sheer bloody minded determination.

It was recommended by a friend and fellow writer Vanessa Gebbie who taught a course with Jones. Apparently, it was once a longer book with sections about the first world war but Jones realised that he had to serve the plot and cut everything else out. So it is a short book but it feels much bigger. I savored each section and read it slowly. So The Dig is a masterclass in the power of cutting story back to the essentials.

I would recommend The Dig to all writers and readers with a strong stomach. This is not a Disney version of the countryside and farming. If you are upset by cruelty to animals or the blood and guts of nature - do not read this book.

2 people found this helpful

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