Isaac and the Egg: the unique, funny and heartbreaking Saturday Times bestseller

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This review is for the audio version of the novel, I found the audio version made a great bedtime story, the narrators tone, pitch and pace matched the story perfect. I found the 30-40mins chapters just the right amount for a chapter before bed, with the excellent voices done by the narrator I felt I got a sense of how Iscca as feeling and I loved the sarcasm at times and the way the narrator conveyed this. This story made a great audiobook and I suspect it would be equally as great in print.

I was completely mesmerised by Isaac's emotionally charged story - we first meet Isaac where he is contemplating ending his own life, when he is distracted by a scream in the forest. He follows the sound and finds a magical, almost super-real, enormous egg in the middle of a clearing, with no clue as to where it came from or who made it. The two are unlikely companions. But their chance encounter will transform Isaac's life in ways he cannot yet imagine.At the start of my book, Isaac and the Egg, two things happen. Our lead character, Isaac, loses his wife. Then, on one of the darkest nights of his life, he stumbles into the woods and finds something else: a two-foot tall egg. BOBBY PALMER is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He is co-host of the literary podcast Book Chat with Pandora Sykes. His critically acclaimed debut, Isaac and the Egg, was published in 2022. Small Hours is his second novel. Bobby's second novel, SMALL HOURS, will publish in March 2024. BOBBY PALMER is an author and journalist whose writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan and more. He is co-host of the literary podcast BOOK CHAT with Pandora Sykes. Moving and clever… Although it starts with a death and darkness, it’s a story of hope and embracing newness’ JUSTIN MYERS, THE GUYLINER

Though most of the plot is very intense because of grief and mental breakdowns being the prime focus, there are still some light scenes and humorous banter between Isaac and Egg. These are really well-done and don’t feel out-of-place despite the dreary theme.

Isaac is a widower and he’s struggling. On a visit to the woods, he happens across a very large egg and without a second thought he takes it home and settles into a bizarre domesticity with the egg. To even give away a hint of the astoundingly imaginative narrative of Isaac and the Egg would be to ruin the journey into its gloriously soul excoriating wonders but suffice to say, Palmer has crafted what feels like almost all the time you’re reading it, like the definitive guide to what grief feels like. 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. This book was completely bizarre in the best way. At first I was extremely sceptical, I thought the events in here were a tad silly but I really warned to the odd nature of it.There were several times in here that I actually laughed out loud. It was extremely well written and I had no idea where it was going, but the journey was completely worth it. When you get to the end of the book and things start unfolding so you get the full picture of what happened, I was utterly amazed. It was so well done and hit me right in the heart.