PRAISE FOR PIG -- . 'A coming-of-age story as strange and surprising, in its way, as THE CATCHER IN THE RYE' -- New York Times 'A first novel of extraordinary poise and accomplishment, treating a boy's coming of age amid the squalid realities of the new British underclass with a delicacy and lyricism which is both gripping and moving' -- Michael Dibdin 'The detail is immaculately recorded; the effect is heartbreaking' -- Louisa Young, Sunday Times '[A] wholly satisfying book, quietly beautiful and inescapably ominous' -- David Buckley, Observer 'Beautifully evoked ... Cowan writes with a deceptive simplicity' -- Amanda Craig, The Times PRAISE FOR WHAT I KNOW -- . 'Elusive, strange and complex ... an emotionally and philosophically rich existential private eye novel ... Slowly, with great subtlety and skill, Cowan ... explores the private battles that rage silently in every home' -- William Sutcliffe, Guardian 'Gripping. We are mesmerised by its smoothness of plot and prose, perfectly designed to make the odd and the irregular stand out with intensity ... Cowan has succeeded in making the ordinary incredibly engrossing - something that many try to do but few do well.' -- Scotland on Sunday 'Its willed restraint and implicit solitude are wonderfully sustained ... a masterclass in intimate understatement which proves that the brain is indeed our most erotic organ and the imagination its muse.' -- Scotsman '[Cowan] paints a patient, exact and quietly powerful portrait of lives slowly being stripped of their secrets and delusions.' -- Sunday Times

Andrew Cowan was born in Corby and educated at the University of East Anglia. PIG, his first novel (published in 1996), was longlisted for the Booker, shortlisted for five other literary awards and won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, a Betty Trask Award, the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize, the Authors' Club First Novel Award and a Scottish Council Book Award. He is also the author of the writing guidebook THE ART OF WRITING FICTION and four other novels: COMMON GROUND, CRUSTACEANS, WHAT I KNOW and WORTHLESS MEN, which will be published by Sceptre in 2013. He is the Director of the Creative Writing programme at UEA.