Product Description

A novelization of the Anthony Shaffer script, this is a tale of a Highlands policeman on the trail of a missing girl being lured to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle. As May Day approaches shamanistic and erotic events erupt around him. Was the girl a human sacrifice?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144203 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
A novelisation of the notoriously censored 1973 film, The Wicker Man is a compulsive study of faith and temptation--a tale that, on its release, must have been entirely without precedent for its stark treatment of taboo subjects such as pagan worship, kidnap and sacrifice. Interestingly, while the film, shunted from its top billing by nervous studio bosses, came across as a simple morality tale, that of good versus evil, the novel revels in a complex ambiguity that questions the very nature of religious faith to the core, and if anything, is even more of an affront to the Christian consensus.

The plot centres on Sergeant Howie's investigation of the disappearance of a child on the remote islands off the north coast of Scotland. On the isolated isle of Summerisle he finds a society that has long turned its back on Christianity, in favour of the worship of a heathen religion devoted to the rites of fertility and the pleasures of the flesh. Howie becomes convinced that Summerisle's May Day harvest festival will culminate in a sacrifice--yet at every turn, he is confronted by temptation and perversion, an invitation that, despite his devout chastity, he struggles to resist. The workings of the alien community of Summerisle are rendered with impressive attention to detail throughout, through Sergeant Howie's naive, Puritan eye--a detail that gets more foreboding, more grisly, as the tale reaches an arcane climax. And while it's wholly predictable, The Wicker Man concludes with a sense of creeping doom, as chilling as it is inevitable. --Louis Pattison

Customer Reviews

The author has a unique gift for plot
The Wicker Man is one of the most under-rated films in history and that book, which was inspired by the original screenplay, is just as impressive. With the film heavily cut, there is much in the book that will be new to most people. The 'missing' bits put the plot into a wider context and the story is all the better for it. Given that this is essentially a novelisation, the narrative is particularly impressive. Shaffer might have been better publishing his original screenplay but this offering is a vital read for anyone seeking true horror in an authentic setting.

A genuine classic.
Hardy and Shaffer are masterful at setting the mood and tone in this novelisation of the cult film. Instead of using the format for commercial gain they obviously made a real effort to fill in the gaps left in the heavily cut video version of the film. Thus we get a deeper insight into Howie's character, bask in the vivid descriptions of the rich landscape of Summerisle, and get presented more lewd songs from which to extract phallic meaning. The whole book is such a refreshing read that its' messages will grow inside your head like the fertile seeds of Lord Summerisles's apples.It makes you yearn for the release of the full 102 minute director's cut of the film on video.

As chilling as the famous film
As chilling as the film (the original I mean, of course). We get to meet the sergeant's fiancée here, as they go birdwatching in the first chapter. The book also features more minor characters on Summerisle as well, which give a deeper context to the story.