Isaac and the Egg should come with a warning (I need to make it absolutely clear here that I loved this book!).

Isaac Addy really isn’t coping with the death of his wife. You’ll stand with him on the bridge as he contemplates throwing himself off as he can’t go on without her, and then he hears a strange noise coming from the woodland below and goes to investigate.

I adored this beautiful, heartfelt, crazy book. I also can’t see how I can tell you ANYTHING at all about it without dropping huge spoilers and making it sound ridiculous. And this is most certainly NOT a ridiculous book. I swung between utter heartbreak (not good on a dog walk) and laughing (also not great, but people always smile back!)

It’s just a perfect book.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Johnny Flynn, who was such a good choice. I’ve heard of him before, and have listened to his music for years (I’ve never seen him act though, and I’m thinking I should!). He has such a gentle voice, absolutely suited to a novel with the themes of love and loss.

So read it, listen to it - but just do one or the other. You won’t regret it. Just keep the tissues handy.

Let me just start by saying, this is not normally a book I would choose to read, but if you are considering it even a little - please dive in, you won’t regret it.



Viewed from a third person narrative the tale of Isaac & the Egg explores grief and many emotive topics in a caring and thoughtful manner, with a large pinch of humour. It offers the promise of something soft and wonderful and really delivers. Joyous, heartwarming, beautifully written and thought provoking. I cried more than once and I laughed out loud, simply glorious!



The narrator is perfect for this book, softly spoken with excellent intonation and pacing.



I really can’t wait to see more from Bobby Palmer.

Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer
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‘Isaac stands alone on a bridge and screams. Something screams back. And that, like everything which follows, is unforgettable.’
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Isaac and the Egg is a very special little book (7h 25m / 288 pages) about friendship, grief, love and loss.
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I don’t want to give too much away as you are best to go in blind, but you know a book is special when you’re googling hardback editions, and thinking of who you’ll recommend it to, while you’re reading it.
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It is highly emotional, but has plenty of funny moments to keep you afloat. If you have experienced a loss recently, you might want to tread carefully, but you might also find that it is quite cathartic. If you want to check for specific content warnings, please DM me.
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It reminded me in style of Leonard and Hungry Paul, which I loved, and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Quirky with a lot of heart, Isaac and the Egg will stay with me for a very long time.
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Isaac and the Egg is available on audiobook now and the hardback edition will be published this Thursday, 18th August. Highly recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

An original and beautifully written book about grief, love and friendship.. The protagonist's loss is handled in a sensitive way and yet there's a good balance of humour in there too. Johnny Flynn feels like the perfect narrator for this, I sped through it in a couple of days.

Must read book of 2022!

This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you finish it, and stick with you even in between reading it. It’s also one you can read and read, and indeed, I’ve read the ebook and listened to the audiobook.

This is a really unusual book, which will make you think, laugh and cry but I would thoroughly recommend it and can’t believe it’s the author’s first. I’m not sure you can replicate Isaac or egg, and it will be a hard (boiled) act to follow, but I look forward to future books.

Thanks to netgalley for an ARC of this.

Isaac has recently lost his wife. He is drowning in grief and see no point in living. He finds himself on a bridge, screaming, when something screams back.

That’s how Isaac meets the Egg, the strangest looking egg he has ever seen. He decides to take Egg home.

Soon, Egg becomes Isaac’s companion and helps him with his grief.

As the extraordinary tale unfolds, we find out more about Isaac’s past and about his marriage.

This book explores topics of bereavement, unlikely friendships, love, but also hope. It’s poignant, but also darkly humorous.

Isaac wasn’t coping at all and he tried to hide it by pretending that everything was just fine and he was all right on his own. Thanks to Egg, he realised that he didn’t need to be alone anymore. Both Isaac and the Egg were there for each other, helping one another.

Egg was a lovely character, I immediately got drawn to him.

The narration by Johnny Flynn was spectacular. His imitation of Egg’s voice had me in stitches – the part when Isaac was trying to teach Egg English was simply hilarious.

Overall, it is a great debut that everyone should read.

Thanks to Headline Audio for approving my NetGalley request.

Rating 4.5 stars rounded off to 5

Thought-provoking and profound with intense philosophical impact!

Synopsis –

Isaac is drowning in grief. With an unimaginable kind of loneliness and hopelessness clinging to his very being, he stands near a bridge and screams. But something screams back. It’s an Egg, an otherworldly being - is it extra-terrestrial or celestial? Or something else? When Isaac decides to take it home, he never thought he would gain a lifelong friend in this “Egg”? Can this “Egg” save him from himself?

Review –

I listened to this on audio thanks to the courtesy of NetGalley and Headline Audio. I don’t think it could’ve been better in any other format.

The general mood of the book is melancholic and somber. The narrator did a wonderful job with his voice adapted to convey this forlorn tone of the book. He also deserves an applause for mimicking the various sounds of the “Egg” and its attempts at speaking.

The story of Isaac is not an easy one. It’s immersed in sadness, heartache and gut-wrenching sorrow. I’d say you need the right mindset to read this book, else you would struggle to connect with him.

However, just as every cloud comes with a silver lining, Isaac is blessed with one such too. The Egg. Once Egg comes into his life, although not immediately, Isaac begins to change in ways he cannot comprehend.

I just loved how interaction blooms between Isaac and Egg. Gradually they strike a kind of friendship that helps with Isaac’s loneliness, giving him a routine, a purpose, finally returning him to his normal humanly existence. This unique friendship is what makes this book so special. What a brilliant and ingenious idea behind the Egg!

What I absolutely adored was Egg’s voice on audio! Oh, I think I was laughing and crying at the same time, with some of Egg’s antics and attempts of communication with Isaac. It was truly a joy to see Egg becoming Isaac’s companion for life!

Palmer‘s writing is exquisite - adorned with some beautiful wordings and quotes, that they made me wonder about the very crux of life, destiny’s cruelties and how it renders us utterly helpless.

Isaac's tale is not only about grief and loss, but also about hope, finding a friend for life and a "home".

This is a story that would stay with me forever.

Isaac Addy stands on a bridge in the woods contemplating suicide. He screams and something screams back. It's not a normal scream. Isaac investigates and discovers a large egg, four times the size of an ostrich egg. Isaac knows he can't leave the egg in the cold, damp woods so takes it home. Once home he discovers that it's not really an egg.

Fairy tale? Science fiction? Family drama? This is a story that defies genre. A tale about grief and how life finds a way to stop us from simply giving up. Isaac is desolate, overcome with grief. Life simply stopped being worth living the moment he heard the news of his wife's death. Despite the help offered by family and friends Isaac just doesn't see the point in going on any more. That is until he discovers the egg and a strange friendship develops. It really is difficult to say more than that without including spoilers.

This story will have you swinging through a range of emotions. I laughed and I cried, and at one point in particular I gasped aloud. This is one of those stories that is going to stay with me for quite a while.

What a beautiful, incredible book. This is a tale of love, loss and most importantly friendship.

The narrator for the audio book was perfect.

In this book we go on a journey with Isaac who is grieving the recent loss of his wife. When Isaac meets the egg he is in the pits of despair but together they go on a beautiful journey in which we see them both grow.

Isaac and the Egg deals with a number of challenging subjects and does so in a manner that is sensitive and beautiful.

This is an odd little book but Palmer handles the subject matter beautifully, from the Egg's very first scream in the dark it had me hooked.

Isaac and the Egg covers a range of topics from love, grief, family and friendship and I fully understand why this book is being talked about so much. What begins as a man standing on a bridge and finding a strange creature soon turns in to something so much more. I think it is best approaching this book knowing very little and letting Palmer take you on a journey you won't forget in a hurry.

Johnny Flynn does an incredible job with the audiobook narration, his tone and subtlety really lends itself to this work.

What began as a very, very strange story had me, hook, line and sinker as soon as I realised what was going on. You don’t need to know about that though, otherwise it’ll spoil it for you! I listened to Isaac and the Egg as an audiobook and quite literally couldn’t take my AirPods out!

All about grief and friendship and how Isaac copes with his loss and learns to manage his mental health. Johnny Flynn narrated this book beautifully and as I was listening, I was feeling Isaac’s pain but also his happiness, which shows through as the story progresses and the Egg helps him through his tumultuous times.

Isaac and the Egg is brilliantly written. It will make you realise that there is hope for us all, despite what our past may have held. I cannot recommend this highly enough, although you may never look at a baked bean in the same way, ever again!

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Audio for the opportunity to listen to and review an ARC of Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer, narrated by Johnny Flynn.

I heard about this book through my favourite Booktuber, and I really wanted to read it. Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Publishing Group for the chance to listen to the audiobook version. And what a listen it was! From the first chapter I was thrown into Isaac’s world filled with grief, self-doubt and self-hatred, with a hint towards of a silver lining as the story progressed.

The bond between the two unforgettable characters of Isaac and Egg, their incredible interactions and Isaac’s journey of teaching Egg how to be human-like. The description of Egg created such a vivid image in my mind of what it looks like and really made the story come to life. Egg really helped Isaac through his journey of grief, after losing the person he loved the most in his life and supported him in becoming the version of himself that the reader gets to see at the end of the book. The book explores grief in a unique way, and Isaac’s feelings were so real and incredibly relatable.

I loved the scenes where Isaac and Egg were watching films together, or when Egg tried to make beans and toast (too funny!). I liked how Egg became Isaac’s little project and how his sole purpose was Egg. When the story progressed, and Isaac discovered the truth about how his wife passed away, it all came full circle and it could not have been more perfect.

The audiobook narrator, Johnny Flynn, did a fantastic job, and his narration of Egg’s voice was just the absolute best.

This is a great book for those who loved Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, as the Isaac’s narrative reminded me in many ways of Eleanor’s, and both characters had striking similarities about them.
Overall, a reading experience I wish I could do again for the first time!

Isaac and the Egg is a unique and beautifully told story around love, loss and grief.

I wouldn't have expected what is a really heartbreaking story to be so wholesome and ultimately heartwarming.

It looks at grief from an angle I have never considered and went to places I wasn't expecting! It took a minute to get used to the idea of Egg, but once into the story, it's hard not to warm to the weird little guy and you can't help but get pulled into this odd little world!

I loved all the references to ET, Fight Club and others and could definitely see the parallels in the story. These comfortable references helped on the few occasions that I was wondering what was happening and I can only imagine that this is another echo to how familiar situations can be a coping mechamism.

Not a book I think I would have picked up, but I am really glad I got to listen to this very original and slightly out-there story! Egg is definitely a character I won't forget in a hurry and it really helped to have the excellent narration by Johnny Flynn to bring him to life!

I was very torn on how to review this, because I think this is probably a very good book, but a relatively middle-of-the-road audio experience. It's a brilliant idea and a very moving exploration of grief - quite unlike anything I've read before. But, overall, very little happens, and there's even less dialogue, which makes for quite a frustrating and boring audiobook. But I can't fault Bobby Palmer's writing, which is accessible but very beautiful. The reading itself is great - surprisingly so, as I'm not usually a fan of celebrity readers, but I loved the tone of Johnny Flynn's voice for the quirkiness of the plot.

So, in essence, buy the book not the audio in this instance.

I’m expecting big things for this one - it’s so unique and just a little bit magical!

Isaac can’t take anymore since losing his beloved wife, so one day he stands at the edge of a bridge and screams to the river below, contemplating ending his life. Except out of nowhere, something or someone screams back, and finally gives Isaac a reason to try and find his way back to himself…

I’m going to keep my review fairly brief, because I’m too nervous about giving anything away when there’s so much magic and surprise to discover in this beautiful story.

What I will say is that this is probably the most original and tender exploration of loss and grief which you’ll read - it’s hard to put into words just how unexpected and special this is, and the level of creativity and imagination which must’ve gone into it. And yet despite how emotional and moving this is, it’s also one of the funniest and most witty novels I’ve read - Isaac just has the most sarcastic, dry and snappy lines which somehow kept me smiling despite the sadness of the story.

This isn’t one of those loud stories with all the bells and whistles because it doesn’t need to be - it’s quiet and tender and says so much more because of that. There’s no doubt it can be bleak at times, but there’s also this offbeat quality and hopefulness to it which will leave you smiling. Can’t believe it’s a debut, and wouldn’t be surprised if all the bookish awards came rolling in…

I havent experienced grief and for that I am thankful, but if I was then I imagine this is a pretty good portrayal of it.
Isaac is on a bridge staring into the water, but then he hears a noise which leads him to an egg and as the stories expands for there, I felt on more than one occasion that this book might be too intelligent for me.
Isaac for me is spiralling and his body/mind is clinging on to something to help tether him, is the egg real / a metaphor, well I'm not entirely sure, but I was gripped by this one despite wondering what was going on.
It takes you on a journey through the grief and despite the subject matter manages to be lighthearted in places also.
I dont think this will be for everyone, but im certainly glad I read it.

Wow. Wow.
Ow my heart - Bobby who gave you the right?!

This book was fantastic, and the audio version really added to the story as we got a ‘voice’ for the egg.
Another reviewer mentions this is “grown up ET with adult struggles at the core” and I couldn’t agree more.

You start the novel wondering what the egg is and where it came from, but in the end it matters not. A tear inducing, wonderful novel and I can’t wait to read more from Palmer.

I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.

Go into this with an open heart and knowing as little as possible.

'Isaac and the egg' has been a particularly difficult book to listen to not least because of the screaming, shouting and annoying ding dong bell sounds. Isaac is consumed by grief to the point where grief is almost a character in itself. Isaac's wife, Mary, has died at the age of 30. The story follows Isaac as he tries to move on with his life whilst being consumed by his grief. There were some similarities initially with 'Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine' as Isaac keeps reminding his friends and family that he is fine, although he is far from fine. The story begins with a drunken Isaac standing on a bridge who can't remember how he got there. There are suicidal thoughts from the start and it is not an easy read. In his grief stricken state, Isaac finds a large egg in the surrounding forest. Isaac takes the egg home, looks after the egg and there begins a strange relationship as the egg cracks to produce a creature. Isaac and the egg frequently scream a greeting of hello at one another. Is the egg real or, is this part of Isaac's psyche?

'Isaac and the Egg' took me a while to get into because of the theme of grief and depression. Around chapter 7, we learn about what happened to Isaac's wife and it is a truly heartbreaking story. Egg is an interesting device whether he is real or not. Despite the themes, I did actually enjoy this book. Grief, death and depression are big themes in this book and it was almost a DNF because of this. That said, I'm glad I listened to this not least because something similar is happening in my own life and it's encouraging to see a resolution at the end.
#IsaacAndTheEgg

A weird and wonderful tale about Isaac’s journey into the illogical world of grief following the death of his wife, Mary. Beautifully poignant and incredibly moving.

So, what do you do when you read (and listen) to a book that you want the whole world to read, but you don't want to tell them too much about it, because this book is one of the most personal books that I have come across in a long time and it is a book that is best started with absolutely no preconceived ideas.

I wanted to sit and talk about this wonderful creation while I was absorbing it, because that's what it does, Bobby Palmers narrative will seep into your very pores. You will want to share every last paragraph of this multilayered triumph, while at the same time wanting to stay quiet, to understand what others make of it, wonder whether you share the same thoughts. My advice is to read it with people, many people, experience it with company.

This book truly stole the air that I was breathing, a tale of tragic loss and the most unfathomable grief, but a story told with the most exquisitely clever humour. A book that, on the surface, its simplicity could be mistaken for a book for a younger audience, but for me that is where it's true power hides. A multilayered, gentle unravelling of a man who feels that he has lost everything, a tender meditation on the power of the mind.

There are ET vibes and there are laugh out loud moments, but the beauty of this book is in its perfectly paced reveal and the intricate weave between what is real and what is imagined.

This audiobook is narrated by Johnny Flynn, and while I am still relatively new to the audio experience, I have to say that his rendition was perfect. His tone and pace were exemplary and he added much to this already exquisite book.

Can't recommend highly enough, the book of the summer I think.