Description

‘Hugely readable and profoundly important … Perry’s masterly piece of postmodern gothic is one of the great achievements of our century’
The Observer

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE

OBSERVER FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018

‘Beautiful, devastating, brilliant’
Marian Keyes

‘Astonishingly dark … exquisitely balanced’
Francis Spufford

‘Packs a punch of atmosphere, creepiness, fear and melancholy’
Susan Hill

‘Mythic, ominous and sensitively human’
Frances Hardinge

‘Richly atmospheric, daring and surprising’
Melissa Harrison

‘Striking and brave, … moving and terribly beautiful’
Sam Guglani
Oh my friend, won’t you take my hand – I’ve been so lonely!

One winter night in Prague, Helen Franklin meets her friend Karel on the street.

Agitated and enthralled, he tells her he has come into possession of a mysterious old manuscript, filled with personal testimonies that take them from 17th-century England to wartime Czechoslovakia, the tropical streets of Manila, and 1920s Turkey. All of them tell of being followed by a tall, silent woman in black, bearing an unforgettable message.

Helen reads its contents with intrigue, but everything in her life is about to change.

Publisher Review

Sarah Perry stands out as an exhilaratingly bold storyteller * Mail on Sunday * Scary and smart, but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of love and will. * Washington Post * Rich, elegant and atmospheric * Irish Times * A novel that manages that vanishingly rare feat - being at once hugely readable and profoundly important * Observer * Mythic, ominous and sensitively human, Melmoth is haunting in all the best ways -- Frances Hardinge This is a beautiful, devastating, brilliant book. It affected me so much I was shaking after I read it. The exquisite, immersive writing compelled me to keep reading even through the horrors described. -- Marian Keyes Astonishingly dark, rich storytelling, exquisitely balanced between gothic shocks and emotional truth -- Francis Spufford Sarah Perry is a wonderful writer, the real thing -- Susan Hill Atmospheric and unsettling, Perry's version works on one level as a creepy ghost story, but its greater purpose is to pose hard questions about suffering, redemption, complicity and our responsibilities to each other. -- Alastair Mabbott * The Herald * The rich Gothic imagination of Perry's bestselling The Essex Serpent is on sparkling form here, as Melmoth wanders across centuries and continents, linking the stories of all who encounter her in a gloriously multi-layered narrative which is both chilling and redemptive. -- Jane Shilling * Daily Mail * An ominous story of creeping dread, perfect for the lengthening evenings -- Keeba Roy * The Mail on Sunday *