- Imprint: Vintage
- ISBN: 9781784704926
- Length: 352 pages
- Dimensions: 198mm x 21mm x 129mm
- Weight: 281g
- Price: £8.99
Swansong
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Swansong is a Scottish folk horror novel by Kerry Andrew about a young woman fleeing guilt in London for the Scottish Highlands, where eerie visions and a disturbing encounter with a mysterious loner draw her into a myth-drenched mystery. Ideal for readers who enjoy unsettling rural settings, wilderness Gothic and distinctive first-person voices.
Synopsis
In this stunningly assured, immersive and vividly atmospheric first novel from the celebrated musician, a young woman comes face-to-face with the volatile, haunted wilderness of the Scottish Highlands.
Polly Vaughan is trying to escape the ravaging guilt of a disturbing incident in London by heading north to the Scottish Highlands. As soon as she arrives, this spirited, funny, alert young woman goes looking for drink, drugs and sex – finding them all quickly, and unsatisfactorily, with the barman in the only pub. She also finds a fresh kind of fear, alone in this eerie, myth-drenched landscape. Increasingly prone to visions or visitations – floating white shapes in the waters of the loch or in the woods – she is terrified and fascinated by a man she came across in the forest on her first evening, apparently tearing apart a bird. Who is this strange loner? And what is his sinister secret?
Kerry Andrew is a fresh new voice in British fiction; one that comes from a deep understanding of the folk songs, mythologies and oral traditions of these islands. Her powerful metaphoric language gives Swansong a charged, hallucinatory quality that is unique, uncanny and deeply disquieting.
Perfect for readers who like...
Books like Swansong
Themes and story elements
Synopsis
In this stunningly assured, immersive and vividly atmospheric first novel from the celebrated musician, a young woman comes face-to-face with the volatile, haunted wilderness of the Scottish Highlands.
Polly Vaughan is trying to escape the ravaging guilt of a disturbing incident in London by heading north to the Scottish Highlands. As soon as she arrives, this spirited, funny, alert young woman goes looking for drink, drugs and sex – finding them all quickly, and unsatisfactorily, with the barman in the only pub. She also finds a fresh kind of fear, alone in this eerie, myth-drenched landscape. Increasingly prone to visions or visitations – floating white shapes in the waters of the loch or in the woods – she is terrified and fascinated by a man she came across in the forest on her first evening, apparently tearing apart a bird. Who is this strange loner? And what is his sinister secret?
Kerry Andrew is a fresh new voice in British fiction; one that comes from a deep understanding of the folk songs, mythologies and oral traditions of these islands. Her powerful metaphoric language gives Swansong a charged, hallucinatory quality that is unique, uncanny and deeply disquieting.
Perfect for readers who like...
- Unsettling supernatural fiction
- Scottish folklore, mythology and a strong sense of the natural landscape.
- Flawed, complex protagonists with distinctive first-person voices.
- Mysteries that blur visions, visitations and the supernatural.
Books like Swansong
- The Haar by David Sodergren
- White Pines by Gemma Amor
- Pine by Francine Toon
- The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
Themes and story elements
- Guilt
- Folklore and myth
- Psychological disturbance
- Supernatural visions
- Hidden past
- Transformation
Details
All editions
- Paperback 2019
- Ebook 2018
