“A superb debut, an atmospheric and gripping mystery… bursting with the most beautiful and lyrical prose.” K J Wignall, author of The Mercian Trilogy
“Startlingly original…brilliantly weird and dark.” Sara Maitland, author of A Book of Silence
To a tiny island in Orkney, peopled by a devout community of thirty, comes Victor Frankenstein, driven there by a Devil’s bargain: to make a wife for the Creature who is stalking him across Europe. In this darkly-wrought answer to Frankenstein, we hear the untold tale of the monster’s wife through the perspective of the doctor’s housemaid. Oona works below stairs with her best friend May, washing the doctor’s linens and keeping the fires lit at the big house. An orphan whose only legacy is the illness that killed her mother, Oona knows she is doomed. But she is also thirsty for knowledge, determined to know life fully before it slips away. As tensions heighten between Victor and the islanders, Oona becomes the doctor’s trusted accomplice, aiding in secret experiments and seeing horrors she sometimes wishes to forget. When May disappears, Oona must face up to growing suspicions about the enigmatic employer to whom she has grown close – but the truth is darker than anything she could imagine.
The Monster’s Wife came out with Barbican Press in September 2014. It was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year (Saltire) Award. You can order it from Amazon here.