Verge

'Had me gripped from start to finish ... timely, horrifying, and hugely entertaining' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Dance Tree and The Mercies

The day Rowena Murray was born, 250 starlings fell like stones from the sky. Ever since, she has been marked by Death. First the visions; then her boyfriend died suddenly; now her father, too.

Salvation, Rowena is told, lies to the North: in Culcrith, where her grandmother can save her from the curse. Her mother's farmhand, a young Egyptian man named Halim, is to drive her.

The trip isn't easy. Rowena is rebellious, spiky, and sees bad omens everywhere; Halim is reserved, quiet and prefers to play by the rules; the land is mysterious and treacherous, with people who have married old traditions with new prejudices. The pair's battle of wills may yet develop into an alliance, if they can only let their guards down and let the wild in.

Exploring belief, loyalty and legacies beyond our control, Nadia Attia's thrilling debut is as magnetic and unpredictable as the curse Rowena is racing to escape.

'Had me gripped from start to finish ... timely, horrifying, and hugely entertaining' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Dance Tree

'Verge is a story of unity in light of a disunited Kingdom. Attia has written a vibrant and devastating tale of loss and love that strikes a minor melody at your very heart. Halim and Rowena are characters to treasure' - Saara El-Arifi, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Final Strife

'A strange and haunting debut ... Attia's spellbinding sentences and wonderful characters draw you into a story unlike any other. This is an author to watch' - T.L. Huchu, author of The Library of the Dead and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments

'A gripping debut ... Verge swerves through a fascinating, fractured landscape of folkloric traditions and contemporary divisions, driving its compelling duo to the edge of their own wilderness, asking: what lies beyond the places we can't reach?' - Cari Thomas, author of Threadneedle and The Hedge Witch

'Steeped in folk horror but driven by post-Brexit anxiety, Verge imagines a startlingly original dystopian future that still has its roots in the old ways. A thrilling read and the herald of a significant new talent' - Dan Coxon, author and British Fantasy Award-winning editor of Writing the Uncanny

Nadia Attia is a BFI Network Talent Executive and a published journalist. In 2019 she won the FAB (Faber) prize for fiction and was selected for the London Writers Awards. A graduate of the Curtis Brown novel-writing course, Nadia has been published in Spread the Word's City of Stories anthology, Star Songs and Luna Station Quarterly. Verge is her first novel. Follow her @nadialand

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