The Device, The Devil & Me

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the device the devil and me

Stephanie Taylor

From young writer Stephanie Taylor comes this contemporary story of two strong but flawed Scottish women – mother Joyce and daughter Lauren. Lauren has all kinds of problems but just as she is about to tell her family and seek help, her mother reveals that she has breast cancer. Lauren battles on, a comfort and support to her dying mother, and now the only person who can sort herself out. Taylor deals with issues that will reverberate with many young women – eating problems and self-harm – but her heroine is strong and pulls through. This is not a misery memoir but a quirky, original, blackly funny novel written with verve and audacity.

An accomplished and impeccably penned narrative. Stephanie Taylor is a brilliant tour guide through difficult and challenging human territory.
— Christopher Rush

This book is no longer available to purchase from Linen Press.

SKU: 0002 Category:

About this book

A novel about two superbly strong, original women – a mother with terminal cancer and a daughter who thinks she is possessed by the devil.

Lauren Walker has been keeping one hell of secret: she thinks she is possessed by the Devil. Fear of discovery forces her to wear the mask of a model citizen with strict, self-imposed rules. In her twenties, she succumbs to the pressure of living so many lies and finds release in self-harm and bulimia. When this gets out of control, she braces herself to tell her family and seek help, but at this very moment her mother discloses a tragic secret of her own. She has breast cancer. And so begins the roller-coaster of caring and coping, of surviving and dying. But this is no downer. It is written with such audacity, bravado and black humour that you won’t know whether to laugh or cry. The Device, The Devil and Me is original, powerful, and raw. It engages readers in an emotional journey of dizzy highs and heart-breaking lows. Nothing is done for emotional or stylistic effect and the finale is a triumph.

About the author

Stephanie Taylor is an award-winning writer and artist who draws on her multi-media talents in her richly visual debut novel, The Device, The Devil & Me.

ISBN: 978-0-9559618-4-7
Published: June 2009

Reviews

“WOW! Stephanie Taylor really knocked my socks off with her novel! She has talent in spades and certainly made me cry.”
— Deborah J Miller, Writer

“An accomplished and impeccably penned narrative. Stephanie Taylor is a brilliant tour-guide through difficult and challenging human territory.”
— Christopher Rush, Author of Will

“This is a spellbinding book. A brilliant book, written with superbly accomplished skill and expressiveness, it is completely believable and authentic. It has heart, love and clarity, laced in and through, interlocked with dark apposite humour flashing out at just the right times like a harmonious symphony. There is not a wrong or discordant note throughout. Comic writing, which is passionate, truthful and spot on accurate.”
— Carol Norris, The Eildon Tree

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