Polygon is thrilled to announce the launch of a new series in 2027, Dark Futures, as the follow-up to the widely successful Darkland Tales series. As The Darkland Tales invite some of Scotland’s most celebrated writers to reimagine moments from Scottish history, the Dark Futures series looks in the opposite direction – not back to the country’s past, but towards its future. The series will consist of speculative fiction novellas, often re-imagining and re-interpreting canonical works or classic stories, but setting them in a future or near-future Scotland. The Darkland Tales have featured prolific Scottish authors such as Denise Mina, Alan Warner, David Greig, Val McDermid, and most recently, the Booker Prize-Shortlisted Graeme Macrae Burnet. Dark Futures aims to collaborate with a similar calibre of acclaimed writers with a marked connection to Scotland.

The first title in the Dark Futures series will be The Fall of Frankenstein by Jenni Fagan. The award-winning Scottish author and poet also penned the second Darkland Tale, Hex, a punchy novella re-envisioning The North Berwick Witch Trials.

‘The Fall of Frankenstein outlines the ethos behind the new series perfectly. Mary Shelley’s iconic work is brought to near-future Scotland, where an Independent Bureau of Lost Words has been created in a discreet location on the East Lothian coast, tasked with understanding and confronting the disappearance and violent reappearance of language itself – where words are both monsters and saviours. While the books in this series will always be set somewhere in or feature a connection to Scotland, the intent is to draw influences from as far and as wide as possible.’

– Polygon Editor-at-Large, Jamie Crawford

Jamie Crawford procured World All Language Rights for the book from Wylie Agency, though the author is now represented by Clare Conville at C&W Agency. Clare commented on the deal, saying, ‘It’s absolutely thrilling to be part of the team bringing The Fall of Frankenstein by the brilliant and unstoppable Jenni Fagan to her reading public. Jenni is the mistress of many literary forms –fiction, memoir, and poetry. And coming after the breathtaking novella Hex who will be able to resist her superlative interpretation of this revered classic?’

Author Jenni Fagan has described the book in her own words: ‘Victor Frankenstein is having a nightmare. He dug up Mary Shelley from her crypt and has accidentally re-released the Creature. He did not mean to kill his drinking buddy Finn to provide his dearest crush with a heart, but here she is, drinking a negroni, in a sports car, racing through the East Lothian countryside.

In the meantime, around the world, language is becoming a monster. Words are disappearing. Rain has drowned itself in the Forth. Love disappears from the tips of taxi drivers tongues just as they were about to say it. In the Independent Bureau of Lost Words, the new curator Mary Shelley meets with her muse Victor Frankenstein to discuss how they are going to capture the Creature, with a creeping realisation this time he is coming after his original creator – through her own medium of language.’

The Fall of Frankenstein by Jenni Fagan will be published by Polygon in February 2027.

Dr Jenni Fagan is an award-winning poet, novelist, screenwriter and Doctor of Philosophy; she is published in eight languages. After the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, Jenni was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She has been on various prize lists, including the Desmond Elliott Prize, James Tait Black, Sunday Times Short Story Prize and the BBC International Story Prize. Her award-winning nonfiction memoir, Ootlin, was published in 2024 to widespread critical acclaim. Polygon has published her novella Hex in the Darkland Tales series, as well as her recent poetry collections, The Bone Library and A Swan’s Neck on the Butcher’s Block.