The electrifying new novel from the sensational bestselling winners of the International Booker Prize and 'one of the boldest writers alive today' (Max Porter).

‘It’s been a long time since a book has destroyed me like this.' Max Porter

'Obsessed me from the first line.' Daisy Johnson

'I'm in awe.' Brandon Taylor

WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024

In the tempestuous summer of 2005, a local veterinarian becomes enraptured by a 14-year-old farmer’s daughter – his ‘favourite’ – as he tends her father’s cows. This deeply troubled soul is our narrator: a man who believes he offers the object of his love a tantalizing path out of the constrictions of her conservative rural life, a chance to escape to a world of fantasy. But the obsessive reliance he cultivates builds into a terrifying trap, with a crime and confession at the heart of it that threatens to rip their small community apart.

'Mesmerising . . . A singular, deeply discomforting talent.’ Financial Times

'An extraordinary literary achievement.’ Daily Telegraph *****

‘I was floored by this novel . . . Unholy brilliance.’ Observer

'A unique creation and a tour de force of transgressive imagination.’ Guardian (Book of the Day)