Description

‘Her writing is magnificent’ Telegraph

‘A testament of remarkable, if feverish beauty’ Guardian

In an unhappy suburban household, a young girl begins to retreat into a nighttime world of her own imagining. As her daytime life deteriorates, she decides to take up permanent residence in the house of sleep, where rooms change position and dream-tigers prowl. But there are institutions determined to control her. Will they stop her coming home to the dark forever?

A kaleidoscopic autobiographical narrative, written in the language of childhood dreams once known to us all, this is a work of devastating loneliness and stunning imaginative freedom.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Anna Kavan (1901-1968) was born Helen Woods, the only child of wealthy British expatriates, and grew up travelling through Europe and America. She began publishing under her married name, Helen Ferguson, having left her husband in Burma and returned with her son to live in England. After a mental breakdown in the 1930s she began writing under a new name, taken from one of her characters, and with a new style. She continued writing for another three decades, while frequently using heroin and undergoing several rounds of psychiatric hospitalisation. She died shortly after the publication of Ice, her most celebrated work, also published by Pushkin Press.