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Cursed Bread

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize

Audacious and mesmerising, Cursed Bread is a darkly erotic tale of a town gripped by madness, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.

Elodie is the baker's wife: plain and unremarkable but desperate to escape her dull, small-town life. One day a charismatic new couple appear in the neighbourhood and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long she stalks them through the shining streets: inviting herself into their home, eavesdropping on their conversations, longing to possess them.

Meanwhile, beneath the tranquil surface of daily life, strange things are happening. The animals expire in the fields, ghosts are sighted after dark, the local children grow erratic and violent. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town, and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop.

A shimmering fever-dream of a novel, teasing the reader [..] while finding a fresh narrative framework for the relationship between monotonous small-town life and repressed female desire. Cursed Bread contains more riches than many a novel twice its length

Telegraph

About Sophie Mackintosh

Sophie Mackintosh is the author of four novels, including The Water Cure and Cursed Bread. She has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize, has won a Betty Trask Award, and has been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She has been published in Granta, The White Review and TANK magazine among others. Her new novel, Permanence, will be published in April 2026.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241993903
  • Length: 192 pages
  • Dimensions: 197mm x 12mm x 128mm
  • Weight: 142g
  • Price: £9.99
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