Bitterhall
A Novel
by Helen McClory
£9.99
- Paperback
- E-Book
1443 in stock
Fiction
Reviews
Hauntingly delicious'
Sunday Post
A dark novel filled with obsession and intrigue'
Scots Magazine
A ghostly, shape-shifting novel from a rising Scottish writer… playfully alert to ideas of authenticity, possession and the malleable nature of narrative'
Daily Mail
snatched, impressionistic chapters [which] can switch between personal reflection and prose poetry – an elegant style which only gains in effectiveness as the haunted, gothic undercurrent of the novel becomes more apparent'
Herald
a true wordsmith and sorcerer who can bend words around her fingers into poetic and fantastic sentences'
Goodreads
Told in McClory’s rangy, poetic prose, Bitterhall just works. Beautifully'
Lunate Fiction
Helen McClory is an extremely accomplished and intelligent novelist, which is what makes Bitterhall such a delight …[It] quickly establishes itself in the great Scottish tradition of Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Stevenson's Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. It is a novel of splits, doubles ghosts, the cleaving and the cloven. In some ways, it reminded me of the late Iain Banks. I ended it wondering what would happen to the characters next – a testament to its power'
Scotland on Sunday
[Bitterhall has] the enjoyment factor – I liked spending time with these characters. [McClory's] writing is immersive, [she] creates a very particular world. I really recommend it'
BBC Radio Scotland
Reeling with edge of your seat atmosphere Bitterhall is brilliantly unnerving novel that explores the liminal blurring of inner life with outward reality. Laced with dry wit, this shrewdly-written read rises to a gripping, question-raising climax'
Lovereading.co.uk
About the Book
'Hauntingly delicious' - Sunday Post
Bitterhall is a story of obsession told between three unreliable narrators. Daniel, Órla and Tom share a flat and narrate the intersections of their lives, from future-world 3D printing technology to the history of the book, to a stolen nineteenth-century diary written by a dashing gentleman who may not be entirely dead. A Hallowe’en party leads to a series of entanglements, variously a longed-for sexual encounter clouded by madness, a betrayal, and a reality-destroying moment of possession.
The Author
Helen McClory
Helen McClory is the author of two story collections, On the Edges of Vision (Queen’s Ferry Press), a winner of the Saltire First Book of the Year award, and Mayhem & Death (404 Ink), as well as a novel, Flesh of the Peach (Freight, 2017). The Goldblum Variations – a collection of experimental micro-fictions – was published by 404 Ink, and Penguin in 2019. Her short stories have been listed for distinction in The Best of British Fantasy (2018), The Best of British and Irish Flash Fictions (2018/19), and nominated for the Pushcart prize. Helen is a part-time lecturer at the University of Glasgow and co-founder of writing retreat Write Toscana.You may also like…
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