The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again - M. John Harrison

n n*WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE 2020* n n*A New Statesman Book of the Year* n n'A mesmerising, mysterious book . . .

Haunting. Worrying. Beautiful' Russell T.

Davis n n'Brilliantly unsettling' Olivia Laing n n'A magificent book' Neil Gaiman n n'An extraordinary experience' William Gibson n nWinner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2020, this is fiction that pushes the boundaries of the novel form. n nShaw had a breakdown, but he's getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge, and an on-off affair with a doctor's daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age thirteen.

n n It's not ideal, but it's a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn't got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical... n n Meanwhile, Victoria is up in the Midlands, renovating her dead mother's house, trying to make new friends.

But what, exactly, happened to her mother? Why has the local waitress disappeared into a shallow pool in a field behind the house? And why is the town so obsessed with that old Victorian morality tale, The Water Babies?

n n As Shaw and Victoria struggle to maintain their relationship, the sunken lands are rising up again, unnoticed in the shadows around them.n