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The Instant

The Instant

by Amy Liptrot

Canongate ·2022 ·180 pages
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
46/99
Top of the Pile

78/99

Critics' Rating Index

Bottom of the Pile

14/99

Readers' Rating Index

n/a

Scholars' Citation Index

66/99

Volume of Reviews

70/99

Volume of Reader Ratings

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About This Book

Wishing to leave the quiet isolation of her Orkney island life, Amy Liptrot books a one-way flight to Berlin. Searching for new experiences, inspiration and love, she rents a loftbed in a shared flat and looks for work. She explores the streets, nightclubs and parks and seeks out the city's wildlife - goshawks, raccoons and hooded crows. She looks for love through the screen of her laptop. Over the course of a year Amy makes space for something to happen, hoping for the unexpected. And it comes with an erotic jolt, in the form of a love affair that obsesses her. The Instant is a frank and luscious look at the addictive power of love and lust. It is also an exploration of the cycles of the moon, the flight paths of migratory birds, the mesmerising power of Neolithic stonework and the trails followed behind by a generation who exist online.


Reviews

"However, moment by moment, The Instant begins to accrue an extraordinary weight ..."

Evie Wyld· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The tone of the book as a whole; refreshingly honest, written by someone concerned with truth as opposed to perception."

Sarah Gilmartin· The Irish Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The style of The Instant is more experimental than The Outrun ..."

Mia Levitin· Financial Times Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"A slim, impressionistic, often melancholy work that, along with following her adventures in a new place, grapples with ideas of solitude, romance and a life lived simultaneously online and off."

Fiona Sturges· The Guardian Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"It could become frustrating, but in each book Liptrot eventually comes down to land on something, and it is the wait that gives the whole its brilliance."

Rozalind Dineen· Times Literary Supplement Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"While it lacks the stark transcendence of The Outrun, The Instant does evocatively capture – and indeed honour – much that we try to shrug off when it comes to the often calamitous pursuit of lasting intimacy."

Hephzibah Anderson· The Guardian Read review ↗ Near the Top

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