DAVID SAVILL
Books
They Are trying to Break Your Heart
Bloomsbury, March 2016
In 1994, Marko Novak's world is torn apart by the death of his best friend. Kemal, a young soldier in the darkest days of the Bosnian war, is killed in the shelling of their home town. But his body is never recovered. After the funeral, Marko flees to England, hoping to put his broken homeland, and the part he played in the loss of his friend, behind him. In 2004, human rights researcher Anya Teal is following a tenuous lead in the hunt for a Bosnian man with blood on his hands. She is also clinging to the fragile hope that she can rebuild a relationship with her first love, William Howell. Inviting Will to holiday in the Thai beach resort of Kao Lak, her motives are not entirely pure. She hopes the holiday will offer them the chance to unpick the mistakes of their past, but Kao Lak may also be home to the man Anya is looking for - a man with a much darker history.
​
Roads Ahead
Tindal Street Press 2009
A while back, I wrote a story called Table Rock Lake. It was chosen for a Bridport Prize, but being the numpty I am, I had simultaneously submitted it for the prize and for publication in an anthology by Tindal Street Press. This meant the story was disqualified from Bridport, but eventually published in this beautiful collection from Tindal Street. It's about a gay man whose lover is caught up in the abuse of detainees in an Iraqi jail. Yes, it's a barrel of laughs. But The Independent called it 'moving and surprising', which could describe the last Prawn Jalfrezi I had.
Mechanic's Institute Review, 16
Birkbeck Press, 2015
My story, Intervention, appeared in MIR 16. Over the past fifteen years, MIR has featured work from Hari Kunzru, Alex Preston, Evie Wyld, Toby Litt, Julia Bell, Ali Smith and many more.
Mechanic's Institute Review, 10
Birkbeck Press, 2009
My story, Split , appeared in MIR 6.
Hard Shoulder
Tindal Street Press, 1999
My first published story, A Death in the Family, appeared in this collection of young Midlands writers, by the excellent Tindal Street Press. Thankyou Jackie Gay and Julia Bell for choosing and publishing it!