Old Soul

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 *Sinister, mysterious and gorgeously realised, Old Soul is as good on the horror and subliminity of love (and its shadow, loneliness) as it is on nerve-flaying visions of the vicious supernatural * KALIANE BRADLEY, author of The Ministry of Time *Old Soul is a mesmerising story brilliantly told. The way the novel slowly reveals its dark secrets as it moves with ease and elegance across continents and eras is hugely impressive. * IAN McGUIRE, author of The North Water *Old Soul is like nothing else I’ve ever read …More than anything, though, I loved how it made me feel: like I’d woken up after a long sleep to see for the first time how terrifying and strange the contemporary world has become. This the kind of story you tell around a campfire as the lights of civilization begin flicker out around you; a global, intelligent, and ambitious archetypal nightmare * KRISTEN ROUPENIAN, author of Cat Person *Sinister, unnerving and nightmarish. Old Soul will sneak into your dreams and haunt you * CLAIRE FULLER, author of Unsettled Ground *Old Soul is an utterly addictive and completely immersive novel. Beautifully written and filled with engrossing characters and unforgettable landscapes, it is the most propulsive thing I have read all year * LARA WILLIAMS, author of Supper Club *Beautifully written and at times terrifying … I was completely swept up in the atmosphere of the book and the plot continues to haunt and unsettle me, in the very best of ways * EMILY MIDORIKAWA, author of Out of the Shadows *Old Soul enticed me in with a chance meeting between mysterious strangers with one thing in common: a nameless horror that haunts them. The novel that follows is expansive, twisty, gripping and intelligent; I loved it * JENN ASHWORTH, author of Ghosted *Susan Barker is a tremendous writer and Old Soul snags the reader in its claw and mesmerises from page one. I often wondered if I was devouring the story or vice versa, I was so engrossed. It is not an option to put this book down * MONIQUE ROFFEY, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch *Old Soul is an extraordinary achievement. A brutal interrogation of art, connection, the meaning of and impulse toward life itself. I couldn’t put it down * BETH UNDERDOWN, author of The Witchfinder’s Sister *

SUSAN BARKER is the author of four books. Her third novel, The Incarnations, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews’ Top Ten Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. An excerpt from her fourth novel, Old Soul, won a Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction in 2020. Susan currently lives in Manchester, where she is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.