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Published Mar 2020
256 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
Elegant, sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth.
One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to shut his bookshop early, and possibly forever, and drives out of London to see his brother. When his car breaks down on an isolated road, he goes looking for help and finds a dilapidated house. As he approaches, a laughing woman he's never seen before walks out, addresses him by name and explains she's been waiting for him. Entering the home, John discovers an enigmatic clan of residents all of whom seem to know who he is, and also claim they have been awaiting his arrival. They seem to be waiting for something else, too—something final…
Written before Sarah Perry's ascension to an internationally bestselling author, After Me Comes the Flood is a spectacular novel of obsession, conviction and providence.
"Like Shirley Jackson, Carmen Maria Machado, and other evocative masters of the gothic, Perry circles closer to answers without ever dispelling the magic that holds her narrative in breathless suspense. A mysterious fable about honesty and deceit, love and self-loathing, and our sometimes-doomed quests for inner peace." - Kirkus Reviews
"Though the slow pace will test readers' patience, the novel succeeds in building a strange world in the English woods. Perry's fans will want to take a look." - Publishers Weekly
"A dark, marvelous novel…pour yourself a cool drink and bask in a dazzling new writing talent." - Daily Telegraph (UK)
"An original and haunting book…a mix of elegant, alluring, but subtly sinister characters…a talented writer." - Daily Mail (UK)
"Perry's work harnesses the mythic power of religious and historical texts to lend weight and wonderment…she is adept at peeling back the skin to reveal a detailed anatomy of psychological motivation…A gripping, memorable, impressive debut." - Independent on Sunday (UK)
"Deeply creepy and startlingly well-written." - Times Literary Supplement (UK)
"A beautiful, dream-like, unsettling narrative in which every word, like a small jewel, feels carefully chosen, considered and placed. Rarely do debut novels come as assured and impressive as this one." - Sarah Waters, New York Times bestselling author of The Paying Guests
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Painting by Alan Coulson
Sarah Perry was born in Essex in 1979, and was raised as a Strict Baptist. Having studied English at Anglia Ruskin University she worked as a civil servant before studying for an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Creative Writing and the Gothic at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2004 she won the Spectator's Shiva Naipaul Award for travel writing.
In January 2013 she was Writer-in-Residence at Gladstone's Library. Here she completed the final draft of her first novel, After Me Comes the Flood, which was published by Serpent's Tail in June 2014 to international critical acclaim. It won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award 2014, and was longlisted for the 2014 Guardian First Book Award and nominated for the 2014 Folio Prize. In January and February 2016 Sarah was the UNESCO ...
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