The haunting new folk horror novel from Lucie McKnight Hardy Astrid Aspden is a young and talented artist who has just secured her first solo exhibition. But in the weeks leading up to the exhibition her house is flooded and her paintings damaged. Overcome with despair and not knowing what to do, Astrid is thrown a lifeline by her best friend Flora who invites her to stay at a chapel she and her partner are renovating in the Brecon Beacons. While staying there Astrid learns about the unsettling history of the chapel and what lies beneath the nearby reservoir. Gradually, Astrid notices strange goings-on in the chapel: handprints on her paintings, shadowy figures in the gloaming, and voice whispering in the night. All the while things become tense between Astrid and Flora as sour memories flare up and deep wounds are laid bare. Whether it is the past, the otherworldly, or the truth - they all haunt this menacing and claustrophobic novel.

Autorentext
Lucie McKnight Hardy is the author of Water Shall Refuse Them, which was shortlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition and longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award and the short story collection, Dead Relatives. Lucie grew up in West Wales and is a Welsh speaker. She has also lived in Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford, and now lives in Hay-on-Wye.

Klappentext

The haunting new folk horror novel from Lucie McKnight Hardy

'All my fears have vanished, and I realise now that my dreams were not nightmares but a sign of what was to come, how this will end. An inevitability.'

Things were looking up for Astrid Aspden and her partner, Kit, until their house flooded. With Astrid's first solo art exhibition just weeks away, her paintings are ruined and excitement has turned to despair.

She is thrown a lifeline when her best friend Flora invites her to stay in a run-down chapel she and her partner, Sim, are renovating in the Brecon Beacons. As Astrid and Kit settle into their new surroundings to salvage her work, they soon learn about the unsettling history of the chapel and what lies beneath the nearby reservoir.

As the weeks go by, tensions simmer between Astrid and Flora as sour memories flare up from their teenage past and deep wounds are laid bare from an ill-fated school trip to Florence. Her relationship with Kit begins to fray as the chapel and the surrounding hostile beauty of the valley begin to intrude on their lives.

Astrid throws herself into her work but the longer she spends in the chapel the more she begins to notice things: handprints on her paintings, shadowy figures reflected in the reservoir and voices whispering in the night. As the darkness of the Welsh valley closes in on Astrid, will she be able to run from the looming horror or be consumed by it?

Whether it is the past, the otherworldly, or the truth - they all haunt this menacing and claustrophobic novel.