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Old Soul

bySusan Barker

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When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.

Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared.

Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.

And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

Barker's finely written novel is super-sophisticated horror, as indebted to literary fiction... as it is to gothic gore. If the Booker prize judges are open to genre titles, it wouldn't be too surprising to see it on their longlist

JD, The Times

About Susan Barker

Susan Barker is the acclaimed author of SAYONARA BAR, THE ORIENTALIST AND THE GHOST, THE INCARNATIONS and OLD SOUL. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages and have been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. THE INCARNATIONS was a New York Times Editors' Choice and Notable Book of the Year, a Kirkus Reviews Top Ten Book of the Year, and winner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize.
Born in London to an English father and a Chinese-Malaysian mother, Barker lived in Beijing for several years while researching and writing THE INCARNATIONS. She now lives in Manchester, where she is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
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Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9781405963657
  • Length: 304 pages
  • Dimensions: 197mm x 18mm x 128mm
  • Weight: 215g
  • Price: £9.99
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