Sarah Perry

"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 GuestsElegant, 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 him 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.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent--soon to be an Apple TV+ Series"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 GuestsElegant, sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by Sarah Perry, 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.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent--soon to be an Apple TV+ Series"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 GuestsElegant, sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by Sarah Perry, 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.

'Hugely readable and profoundly important ... Perry's masterly piece of postmodern gothic is one of the great achievements of our century' The Observer SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE OBSERVER FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 'Beautiful, devastating, brilliant' Marian Keyes 'Astonishingly dark ... exquisitely balanced' Francis Spufford 'Packs a punch of atmosphere, creepiness, fear and melancholy' Susan Hill 'Mythic, ominous and sensitively human' Frances Hardinge 'Richly atmospheric, daring and surprising' Melissa Harrison 'Striking and brave, ... moving and terribly beautiful' Sam Guglani Oh my friend, won't you take my hand - I've been so lonely! 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.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent--soon to be an Apple TV+ Series"Masterful...scary and smart, working as a horror story but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of will and love. Perry did as much in her richly praised novel The Essex Serpent, but this is a deeper, more complex novel and more rewarding."--The Washington PostIn Melmoth, Sarah Perry's breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, a mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe for centuries, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history's darkest waters--and now, it is heading in our direction. It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts--or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears....

Det var en gång en far och en son. Det här är inte påhittat, självklart. Denna far och hans son existerade verkligen. Deras äventyr är ibland överdrivna, ofta väldigt roliga, och visar alltid det kärleksfulla bandet mellan dem - oavsett vilka galna saker som händer dem!

En uppslukande roman som jämförts med Charles Dickens, Bram Stoker och Hilary Mantel och tagit Storbritannien med storm. London 1893. Cora Seaborne är fortfarande ung men har just blivit änka, och nu förväntar sig omgivningen att hon ska snöra åt korsetten, klä sig i svart och dra sig tillbaka med en knähund i famnen. Men äktenskapet var inte särskilt lyckligt, och rollen som viktoriansk societetsfru passade aldrig den egensinniga och frihetstörstande Cora. Hon bestämmer sig för att lämna storstaden för landsbygden i Essex, tillsammans med sin socialistiskt orienterade väninna Martha och sin mycket speciella son Francis. De hamnar i den lilla staden Colchester, där rykten om ett mystiskt odjur har skapat masshysteri hos lokalbefolkningen. Coras teori är att det rör sig om en oupptäckt art som hon är fast besluten att hitta och klassificera. Hon finner en oväntad vän och intellektuell jämlike i traktens präst William Ransome. Tillsammans söker de svaret på gåtan, samtidigt som Will och Cora oundvikligen dras till varandra. Etta på Sunday Times bästsäljarlista, belönad med det brittiska bokhandelspriset Waterstones Book of the Year och British Book Awards Overall Book of the Year och nominerad till en lång rad priser, däribland Costa Book Award och Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history's darkest waters--and now, in Sarah Perry's breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, it is heading in our direction. It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts--or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . .

From the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent--soon to be an Apple TV+ Series"Masterful...scary and smart, working as a horror story but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of will and love. Perry did as much in her richly praised novel The Essex Serpent, but this is a deeper, more complex novel and more rewarding."--The Washington PostIn Melmoth, Sarah Perry's breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent, a mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe for centuries, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history's darkest waters--and now, it is heading in our direction. It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts--or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears....

'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' Sunday Times 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express A rich collection of unnerving ghost stories and sinister histories conjured from the imaginations of bestselling authors: Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sarah Perry, Stuart Evers, Kate Clanchy, Kamila Shamsie and Max Porter. From medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker, locations are inspired by rumours of hauntings on English Heritage sites*. Let these immersive stories transport you to the past - the perfect book for the haunting season. *Also includes a gazetteer of EH properties which are said to be haunted.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. A fierce memoir of a mother's murder, a daughter's coming-of-age in the wake of immense loss, and her mission to know the woman who gave her life. When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse; she took it as a good omen for her and her mother, Crystal. But that moment of darkness foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine. It took twelve years to find the killer. In that time, Sarah rebuilt her life amid abandonment, police interrogations, and the exacting toll of trauma. She dreamed of a trial, but when the day came, it brought no closure. It was not her mother's death she wanted to understand, but her life. She began her own investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, deep into the darkness of a small American town. "Pull ing] the reader swiftly along on parallel tracks of mystery and elegy" in After the Eclipse, "Perry succeeds in restoring her mother's humanity and her own" (The New York Times Book Review).

London, 1893: Da Cora Seabornes ektemann dør, får hun muligheten til å starte livet på ny. Ekteskapet var dypt ulykkelig, og Cora, som er en intellektuell og nysgjerrig kvinne, har aldri funnet seg til rette blant sosieteten i storbyen. For å komme til hektene bosetter hun seg på den engelske landsbygda med sin sønn Francis. Snart får de høre rykter om «Sjøormen i Essex», et mytisk vesen som en gang jaktet marsklandet etter menneskeliv, og som nå er kommet tilbake i all sin gru. Snart begynner forferdelige ting å skje i landsbyen. Som den opplyse kvinnen Cora er, lar hun seg raskt begeistre av myten. Hun er overbevist om at sjøormen egentlig er en uoppdaget art, og det blir en besettelse for henne å løse mysteriet. Underveis i letingen blir hun kjent med den lokale presten, den like eventyrlystne William Ransome. Men der Cora setter all sin lit til vitenskapen, vender William seg alltid til sin tro, og på tross av at de krangler om hver minste ting, kjenner de en sterk dragning mot hverandre. Sammen er de på vei inn i et eventyr som vil endre livet deres for alltid. Sjøormen i Essex har høstet flerfoldige priser etter utgivelsen, og toppet de britiske bestselgerlistene i månedsvis. Dette er en lekende, mørk og mystisk fortelling som kombinerer det beste fra 1800-tallets gotiske romaner med moderne, spenningsdrevet drama. Gjennom sterke, originale karakterer og et fargerikt språk tematiserer romanen hva som skjer i møtet mellom tro, overtro og vitenskap. «En av de mest bemerkelsesverdige historiske romanene fra det siste tiåret.» Sunday Times«En uimotståelig roman som henter næring fra den viktorianske gotikken og britiske myter.» The Telegraph «En dag vil denne boken bli et utmerket epokedrama på BBC.» The Times«Uimotståelig … Cora Seaborne [er] den herligste heltinnen jeg har støtt på siden Elizabeth Bennet i Stolthet og fordom.» The Washington Post«En nesten skamløst ambisiøs roman.» The New York TimesUtvalgte priser og nominasjoner:BRITISH BOOK AWARDS: Årets bok 2017BRITISH BOOK AWARDS: Årets skjønnlitterære bok, 2017Vinner av litteraturprisen WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2016Nominert til COSTA-prisen 2016Kåret til "Årets vakreste bok" i leserkåringen «THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG»DYLAN THOMAS-PRISEN 2017, nominertInnstilt til WALTER SCOTT-PRISEN«Man hører Dickens hviske i bakgrunnen, men Perrys stemme og fortelling er helt og holdent hennes. Språket er utsøkt, karaktertegningene er finstemte … Perry er en begavet forfatter med meget store evner.» The Irish Times«Perrys særegne skikkelser er skildret med en kjærlighet som både er merkbar og smittsom, og de nydelige skildringene av de skiftende årstidene gir pusterom, noe som alt i alt gjør boken til en fryd å lese.» The Observer«Den er vanskelig å legge fra seg, og det er vanskelig ikke å bli dratt ned i Aldwinters mørke og iblant mørkt komiske farvann..» The Guardian«De praktfulle buktningene og vendingene i Perrys prosa innbyr til en nærlesning like dyp og underlig og full av narrativ magi som selve Blackwater. Lesere som elsker Sarah Waters, A. S. Byatt og Elizabeth Gilberts Alma Whittakers betydelige oppdagelser, bør forberede seg på å bli trollbundet av Perry og overlate seg selv til hennes meget stødige hånd. Boken er full av intelligente grep og magisk fortellerkunst, og tilkjennegir en forbløffende bredde og innsikt.» Kirkus «En nesten skamløst ambisiøs roman – frodig og fabulerende, et vilt eden bak en hageport … Den er vidunderlig fortettet og uforstyrrelig selvsikker. Jeg ble så hensatt til en annen epoke at førtiåtte timer etter at jeg var ferdig med den, var jeg fremdeles bitter over å være hjemme igjen.» The New York Times

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIESA Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction * Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year *A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of The Year * Waterstones Book of the Year * Costa Book Award Finalist"A novel of almost insolent ambition--lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it's part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home." --New York TimesLondon, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. Once there, they hear rumors that after nearly three hundred years, the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year's Eve, the community's dread transforms to terror. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons: a man of faith, he is convinced the alarming reports are caused by moral panic, a flight from the correct and righteous path. As Cora and William attempt to discover the truth about the Essex Serpent's existence, these seeming opposites find themselves inexorably drawn together in an intense relationship that will change both of them in ways entirely unexpected. And as they search for answers, Cora's London past follows her to the coast, with striking consequences. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, The Essex Serpent masterfully explores questions of science and religion, skepticism and faith, but it is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different--and surprising--guises it can take.

The debut novel by the bestselling author of THE ESSEX SERPENT One hot summer's day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He shuts up the bookshop no one ever comes to and drives out of London. When his car breaks down and he becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help, and stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms - but there's more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, they've prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along. Who are these people? And what do they intend for John? Elegant, gently sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is the haunting debut novel by the author of The Essex Serpent.

'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' Sunday Times 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express A rich collection of unnerving ghost stories and sinister histories conjured from the imaginations of bestselling authors: Mark Haddon, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Michael Hurley, Sarah Perry, Stuart Evers, Kate Clanchy, Kamila Shamsie and Max Porter. From medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker, locations are inspired by rumours of hauntings on English Heritage sites*. Let these immersive stories transport you to the past - the perfect book for the haunting season. *Also includes a gazetteer of EH properties which are said to be haunted.

London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Along with her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge. On arrival, they hear rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist, is enthralled, convinced that what the locals think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar, who is also deeply suspicious of the rumours, but thinks they are a distraction from true faith. As he tries to calm his parishioners, Will and Cora strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves at once drawn together and torn apart, affecting each other in ways that surprise them both.