About the Book

FROM GRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST JENNI FAGAN COMES AN AMBITIOUS AND POWERFULLY POIGNANT TALE OF ONE OF THE MOST TURBULENT MOMENTS IN SCOTLAND'S HISTORY, THE NORTH BERWICK WITCH TRIALS.

PRAISE FOR LUCKENBOOTH

‘Dazzlingly ambitious’ - DOUGLAS STUART

‘One of the most stunning literary experiences I’ve had in years’ - IRVINE WELSH

‘Fagan is drawn to those who exist on the outer reaches . . . It is somewhere between Alan Warner and Iain Banks that Fagan’s storytelling ability sits, the grit of her familial backstories and dysfunctional relationships dusted with the glitter of magical realism’ - BEN MYERS, NEW STATESMAN

‘She writes at the pace of thought, sentences like gunfire . . . She has a poet’s affection for precision and image’ - FINANCIAL TIMES

IT’S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591.

On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh’s High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor – Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe.

As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace – and the tantalising prospect of escape.

Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king’s violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.