'Hugely readable and profoundly important ... Perry's masterly piece of postmodern gothic is
one of the great achievements of our century' Observer Fiction Book of the Year 'Beautiful
devastating brilliant' Marian Keyes 'Astonishingly dark ... exquisitely balanced' Francis
Spufford 'Richly atmospheric daring and surprising' Melissa Harrison SHORTLISTED FOR THE
2019 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE One winter night in Prague Helen Franklin meets her friend Karel on
the street. Agitated and enthralled he tells her he has come into possession of a mysterious
old manuscript filled with personal testimonies that take them from 17th-century England to
wartime Czechoslovakia the tropical streets of Manila and 1920s Turkey. All of them tell of
being followed by a tall silent woman in black bearing an unforgettable message. Helen
reads its contents with intrigue but everything in her life is about to change.
