I loved Isaac and the egg so had high hopes. This was a lovely, thoughtful read but I was probably expecting a little too much. Some of the alzheimer's sections fell a little short, but the characters were engaging and I loved the fox!

NO SPOILERS

This is Bobby Palmer’s second novel, his first being Isaac and the Egg, which I previously reviewed. Now, the fox is no egg and it feels as though Palmer is wanting to repeat a successful formula. I was very fond of the fox, just as I had been the egg.

But here’s my big but (not literally, just a figure of speech and no pun intended) - whilst I liked the fox I did not like the book. It is simply too cozy for me.

However, there are passages I absolutely love. Being someone who is up at 5.00am (at the latest) and takes a mug of coffee into the garden, no matter the weather, to hear and breath in the morning, I was right beside Gerry as he did this. I love Gerry - he is the only character I did like. I cared not one jot for the rest.

The plot and story move along well enough but the end is rushed and a bit messy.

Still, the book is worth a read for the nature aspect. I suspect Palmer could write well in that genre.

This book is so lovely. I loved the different perspectives and the way that they were all woven into each other with such care and heart. This was really touching and poignant.

Beautifully written book about loss, love, and a talking fox.
Already can’t wait for the next Bobby Palmer.

I had such high hopes for this book, and it was easily one of my most anticipated reads so I was so excited when I found out that I had been approved for an ARC.

There's no denying that Bobby Palmer is a brilliant writer, he packs a lot of subtle emotion in his words making this a tender read at times. I can also appreciate the hidden meanings behind this story, and the themes of family, loss, and love.

This started off really strong and I was really enjoying the writing, however, once I reached the 40% mark I sadly found myself getting very bored. I kept reading waiting for something big and impactful to happen, which sadly it didn't. This is probably more of a melancholic read than I expected, which I am normally a fan of, but sadly I needed a bit more substance from this one to keep me feeling invested unfortunately.

Some very nice themes and writing, just not for me unfortunately as the lack of plot made this a bit of a struggle for me at times. That being said, I will still read whatever Palmer releases in the future as I am a fan of his writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

very lyrical and poetic writing it struck me as a profoundly sad book more character focused than plot focused though i very much enjoyed the parts with the fox

This is such a beautiful book. Th relationship between the family member is both joyful and heartbreaking. It is so well written and deals with dementia in a beautiful way. Highly recommended.

Jack Penwick a country boy born and bred has been living in the City, shaken off his small town country living, became a workaholic city dweller and all that encapsulates. His world comes tumbling down when the company is sold. Jack goes into shock, he thought he was indispensable.
Jack at the same time as receiving his devastating news gets a phone call from his sister Charlotte, their mother has gone.

Jack is having a bad day, he loses his job that has absorbed every part of his life. He is having a crisis when he spots an injured fox who he helps rescue and who says Thank you to him and that is just the beginning of the story.

I loved Isaac and the Egg and the writing style of the author and this one is just as lyrical and beautiful. Told from the perspectives of Jack and his father’s Gerry who appears to be suffering from some kind of memory loss and also from the fox. On the same day that Jack gets laid off his sister Charlotte calls him to say their mother has gone missing. So Jack ends up at his parents house for the first time in many years and so we begin to unravel the dynamics of the family.

Jack and his father have never been close and Charlotte is angry with her brother for never being there.

Jack is having his own struggles, he is not sure if he is having a breakdown of his own or whether he has just lost his way completely.

Gerry is also having is own crisis although not entirely aware of the bigger picture. This is a rich tapestry of a book with so many threads to unpick and it’s so engaging and beautifully written.

The fox bridges the gap between the two in such an effortless way.

I became completely immersed in this wonderful story and like Isaac and the Egg will stay with me for a long time.

This was a different genre of book than what I normally read but I enjoyed it and would recommend it if you are looking for something different than your usual read!

Small hours was totally unexpected! The story was beautifully written and I was completely overwhelmed by the talking fox!
Having loved Bobby Palmers first book I was so excited to read this one and whilst it felt very different the charm and gentleness of which sensitive topics are discussed was there throughout.
I was in quite an emotional place when I read this and found the complicated family relationships to be honestly written and very believable.
All in all a wonderful book!

When he is suddenly made redundant, Jack Penwick is forced to reckon with the fact that the life to which he has devoted himself for years - making money and making himself indispensable at work - suddenly feels pointless. A strange encounter with a mange-ridden urban fox and an unexpected phone call from his younger sister, Charlotte, send Jack into a tailspin, and he soon finds himself back at the tumbledown cottage of his childhood, a place he has avoided for years, trying to figure out his place among his resentful sister, mysteriously absent mother and increasingly confused father.

Bobby Palmer's second novel is a beautiful, thought-provoking story which encourages the reader to pause, look around and reflect on what is important. Through Jack and his family, Palmer sensitively portrays a range of complex dynamics, and each member of the Penwick family is rendered with nuance and tenderness; as their stories unfolded, I found myself identifying and empathising with each of the four family members. While readers might not be able to identify with the specifics of the Penwicks' situation, the themes are common, if not, universal: the difficulty of bridging generation gaps, the legacy of trauma, losing your identity through parenthood or caring for a partner or parent, and the process of reconciling who you are with who you intended to be.

At the centre of the story, is the relationship between Jack and his father, Gerry. Once close, thanks to a shared love of nature, the two grew apart as Jack got older and introverted, softly-spoken Gerry found it harder to understand and communicate with his pragmatic, ambitious son. When Jack returns home, he finds Gerry suffering from dementia and cannot help but be frustrated by this man who can't remember why he is in the garden or even recognise his own son, but can still recall encyclopaedias worth of banal wildlife trivia. What follows is a moving exploration of the relationship between two men - both of whom have forgotten their family in different ways. Less space is afforded to some of the other intra-family relationships, such as those between Jack and Charlotte, Gerry and Charlotte, and Jack's mother, Hazel, and her two children, but these are still artfully realised and poignant. Gerry and Hazel's history and depth of connection is portrayed with warmth and humour, and theirs was the storyline which moved me to tears, so vivid was the depiction of their love and the impact of it on Hazel's life in particular.

The prose is lyrical, nearly poetic at times, painting scenes so evocative that I was totally immersed in them. Animal motifs abound - the lone fox, the barn owls, the sea eagle and the swallow - and I loved how Palmer deployed these with a light but deliberate touch, ensuring that his points could not be missed but not labouring them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley and the publisher Headline in return for an honest review.
Bobby Palmer writes with such beauty, it’s almost lyrical. I love the way he writes, which is what tipped me to a 4 star from a 3.5.
I think I was expecting to enjoy this more than I did, as I absolutely fell in love with Isaac and The Egg. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, I did, but the parts I loved the most were Gerry’s pov chapters. Again, I loved the way Bobby wrote from his pov, the words seemed to just flow across the pages (or screen in my case).
I remember early in in the book, thinking I don’t understand what’s going on here. But if you’ve read Isaac, you’ll know this is Bobby's style, and by the end it just all clicks into place.
I’ll definitely read more of Bobby’s work in the future, he writes like no one else I’ve ever read before.
Thanks again to Headline and Netgalkey for my arc, and thanks to Bobby Palmer for sharing his beautiful writing with us all

Isaac and the Egg was the saddest and most beautiful, haunting book I read in 2022, so I was both excited and nervous about reading Small Hours. Then two of my friends died, so I put it off a bit longer, scared it would be full of the same raw, heart-wrenching grief of Isaac and the Egg. And then, this week, I finally read Small Hours. Once again Bobby Palmer's exquisite writing had me enthralled from the first page. It's hard to tell, with this author, where magical realism stops and metaphors begin, or where metaphor stops and real human emotion takes over. This artfully woven tangle of feelings and humanity and family, and all the little ways we function or malfunction, once again took my breath away, brought tears to my eyes, and left me wondering what in the world Bobby Palmer will give us next.

Small Hours doesn't have the gut-wrenching, tear-streaming, all-consuming grief of Isaac (thank goodness!), but is just as beautifully-written, thought-provoking and emotional. Another must-read for anyone and everyone. Bobby Palmer has done it again.

Bobby Palmer has written another book that I am finding hard to review. I’m still not sure if I enjoyed the story, about a talking fox, or a protagonist who imagines the fox is talking? Jack returns to the family home after being made redundant from his high flying career in London and tries to reconnect with a father who never seemed to care when he was a kid, and who is now in the early stages of dementia. I found the fox a bit of a distraction just as the egg was in his debut novel (Isaac and the egg).
That said Bobby writes about relationships and life in a very insightful and ultimately enjoyable way.

The eagerly awaited new novel from Bobby Palmer, author of the critically acclaimed debut Isaac and the Egg.

The story revolves around the Penwick family during a period of significant upheaval. Jack, recently laid off from work, wanders despondently through the city when he encounters an injured fox. After alerting animal protection services, Jack witnesses the fox being placed in a cage. Surprisingly, as the van doors close, the fox looks up at Jack and utters a heartfelt "Thank you."

Just as Jack grapples with this unexpected encounter, he receives a distressing phone call from his sister, informing him of their mother's disappearance. Despite his long-standing avoidance of his childhood home, Jack realizes he can no longer delay his return.

Upon his arrival, Jack discovers Charlotte tending to their father, who was once distant during Jack's youth but is now grappling with dementia in his advanced years, while their mother is absent without a trace. Charlotte is clueless about their mother's whereabouts, while their father, Gerry, believes he knows but is unable to recall. Jack must embark on a journey to reconnect with the woodland surroundings of their home and bridge the gap with his father to unravel the mystery of his mother's disappearance and find inner peace.

The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This is such a superb read. It is beautifully written and manages to weave in the key elements and experiences of Dementia.
Father (Gerry) and son (Jack) have a strained relationship with deep set grudges that have been festering for many years. Brought together by the disappearance of Jack's mother, at a time when Jack has unexpectedly been made redundant, we follow their individual takes on each other. The Fox is a wonderful sounding board!

Just wonderful!! I didn't think I would get so emotionally attached to these characters, but I did!! Their fragile relationships captured beautifully by the author and really shows the impact that illness and unsaid things have on family relationships.

At the heart of the book is Jack. He finds himself betrayed by 'friends' and fears for his future and while in shock he comes across an injured fox who he tries to catch - and then the fox speaks to him! Not what he, or you as a reader, expects but it becomes a really poignant part of the storyline as we also hear the foxes story too.

A call from home sees him going back, to face new problems that he'd not known about. His mother has gone missing, and his sister has been caring for their father who is dealing with memory problems. Had Jack been too focussed on his own life to notice what was going on back home... he now has time to refocus and try and rebuild relationships.

There are a number of storylines running throughout this book and all were so readable... we hear the story of his mum and dad and how parenthood changed their lives, the changing relationship between brother and sister, along with that of father and son and there was just so many emotional memories and realisations that it was so difficult not to get involved in the varying emotions displayed. There's frustration, regret, anger and forgiveness and the author has done such an amazing job of conveying the varying viewpoints of a fractured family facing more uncertainty with the changing health of the father.

A poignant and unforgettable read - highly recommended!!

Having loved Isaac and the egg I came to this book with some trepidation. How could Bobby Palmer possibly match the raw emotion of that book? Well, I’m so pleased to say that I need not as worried as once more he tackles a difficult topic with sensitivity and panache. Having coped with some of the issues dealt with in this novel, I was swept away in the story and yes I may have shed a tear or two. The writing is just wonderful and the descriptions of nature and the countryside are outstanding. I also listened to the audio of this book which was narrated by Stephen Mangan, who does an incredible job and gives the novel at times a dreamlike and mystical quality. So Bobby Palmer- you have done it again and I can’t wait for your third book. I can’t say how highly I would recommend this audiobook. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the AR see all this novel in return for an honest review.

Beautiful in its simplicity. I loved the unsaid words between the characters - the reconnections and the hope. It was all about understanding the relationships and the impact of eachother in the story.