A deadpan gothic fable that feels as though Kafka, the Brothers Grimm and Aki Kaurismäki had collaborated on a coming-of-age novel.

Young Lucy Minor leaves his village to become undermajordomo at the remote Castle Von Aux, where eccentric aristocrats, servants, wandering soldiers and mysterious guests drift through a world governed by obscure rules and dream logic. The plot unfolds like a fairy tale, but one perpetually undercut by deWitt's dry humour and gift for absurd dialogue.

Beneath its deceptively simple surface lies a novel about class, loneliness, violence, love and the rituals that hold societies together. DeWitt writes in clean, understated prose, allowing surreal events to accumulate with complete emotional seriousness. The result is both comic and unsettling: an old-world story that never settles comfortably into fantasy, historical fiction or satire. A favourite among readers of literary fiction that delights in the peculiar, Undermajordomo Minor is one of the most distinctive novels of the past decade.

Granta paperback edition. Good condition. Light shelf wear with a few faint marks to the covers; binding remains firm and some foxing on pages.