If that sounds like a lot, it is, and for all its magicality and whimsy and sheer endearing funniness at times, Isaac and the Egg doesn’t attempt, not once, to sugarcoat how utterly hard that whole journey is, and how even if something happens to you to begin reshaping things, which it most certainly does to Isaac Addy, that it’s not some overnight fix. Truly one of the most beautiful stories you'll ever read , written with generosity and warmth, and such perception. What's it about? I'd love to have a stab at explaining, but I can't. You're just going to have to find out for yourself. I can tell you one thing: it's a story for anyone who has ever lost somebody, or has ever lost their way

In a series of scenes that intentionally bring to mind seminal moments from ET, Isaac takes the egg – is it an alien? Some sort of beast? – home, where it becomes a fluffy, yolk-faced lodger, and Isaac’s salvation, as he considers, eventually, how to help it return home. The cover is such a fabulous representation of the book and I love it...so much so I just sat staring at the cover after I'd finished the book fully understanding what the cover was about. Isaac and the Egg has taken me completely surprise.. Started out not knowing what I was reading and if I was going to fully engage with the story but ohh my.. When Isaac Addy walks into the woods on the worst day of his life and finds something extraordinary there, he already knows he’s going to take it home.I loved this book, once I got into it! I couldn’t sworn out initially whether this was a YA book or not (I do read both). However, the more I read I realised that this book could help people of all ages and it doesn’t matter what genre it has been classed as!! The book starts with Isaac seemingly finding Egg in the forest and taking him home. What follows is Isaac bonding with Egg and dealing with his own emotions along the way. This is quite a difficult book to review without giving any spoilers but to explain it all would take away the beauty of the book. I love Bobby Palmer’s writing style and turn of phrase. Being a cinephile, I particularly loved all the film references - they are films that have shaped my life, too. I loved Isaac recounting his relationship with his wife, the films they’d watched and now how he’d watch the same films with the Egg. The two are unlikely companions. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac's life in ways he cannot yet imagine.

Ich hätte gerne mehr mitgefühlt, habe die Geschichte einfach heruntergelesen, ohne wirklich zu fühlen, was auf dem Papier steht.But if that doesn’t happen, and let’s face it, it almost never does; that kind of approach to grief is all about people finding a way they can live with someone else’s grief which is never palatable to be around because it reminds us, and we hate this, that death happens. The start of this held me nicely. Isaac is stood on the bridge and considering suicide. Within that he remembers nothing, he screams and then hears a scream that is not his coming from the forest alongside the river. Despite the state he is in - and the engine is still running on his car at the end of the bridge - he heads into the forest to find the source of the scream. There he finds Egg. One of the reasons I like reading debuts is the marvel of the discovery of a new author who makes magic with words. The characterisation is superb, Isaac is grieving, his pain is raw and acute and he doesn’t know which way is up. He’s lonely, suffering, full of anger and his misery is palpable. As for the egg, you’ll have to encounter the wonder and sheer pleasure of that for yourself! Measured, comic and moving… A sad, funny and original novel about grief, loss and embracing change’ DAILY MAIL An arresting debut novel about grief, but in the most wonderfully oblique way’ Reverend Richard Coles