The Tongues of Men or Angels - Softcover

Jonathan Trigell was born in Hertfordshire, but now lives in Chamonix Mont Blanc in France. He is the author of four thematically very different novels: Boy A; Cham; Genus; and The Tongues of Men or Angels, published 2015.

Much acclaimed, Jonathan has won the Waverton Award for best first novel; the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, for best book in the commonwealth by an author under thirty five; the Italian Edoardo Kihlgren Prize, for a translated novel; and the inaugural World Book Day Prize, for the most discussion worthy novel by a living writer.

Jonathan's first novel - Boy A - was dramatized by Cuba Pictures, Film 4 and the Weinstein Co. The production was directed by John Crowley and starred Andrew Garfield, Katie Lyons and Peter Mullan. Boy A subsequently won four BAFTA Awards, the Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and the Jury and Public Prizes at the Dinard Film Festival.

Trigell is a very good writer - and also knows his text inside out. This really helps, because it gives him a very rich support cast: Philemon's slave is a fictional triumph, really well fleshed out from the scanty available evidence.

This often very subtle and creative cross-referencing adds a sort of intellectual game, as a bonus (although I suspect the novel would work perfectly well for those who did not identify the detailed sources), but also more seriously gives a surprising authority to the novel.

It underpins what must be Trigell's greatest achievement: he has created a Saul/Paul (with back-story, complexity, real psychological depth) who might actually have written the epistles - welding that extraordinary mixture of commitment, self-righteousness, touchy insecurity, surprising moments of sweetness, and mystical passion into a single coherent character.

Trigell's fourth novel is a high-octane take on the post-Crucifixion schism that emerged between Judaism and Christianity amid the brutality of Roman rule. Written with an inventive wit and verve, this is an impressive distillation of the Christian myth in the earthy poetry of the everyday vernacular; his portrayal of the Crucifixion is particularly visceral... a bravura and original performance.