The Coiled Serpent

Camilla Grudova

An arresting, discomforting collection from ‘one of Britain’s best young short story writers’ (Daily Telegraph) that revels in the rotten and festers in the imagination.

A little girl throws up Gloria-Jean’s teeth after an explosion at the custard factory; Pax, Alexander and Angelo are hypnotically enthralled by a book that promises them enlightenment if they keep their semen inside their bodies; Victoria is sent to a cursed hotel for ailing girls when her period mysteriously stops. In a damp, putrid spa, the exploitative drudgery of work sparks revolt; in a Margate museum, the new Director curates a venomous garden for public consumption. In Grudova’s unforgettably surreal style, these stories conjure a singular, startling strangeness that proves the deft skill of one of Britain’s foremost writers of her generation.

Praise for Children of Paradise:

‘Magnificently spiky.’ Guardian

‘Utterly enthralling.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Festers in glorious style.’ Daily Telegraph

Camilla Grudova lives in Edinburgh where she works as a cinema operator and waitress. Her fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta. She is the critically acclaimed author of The Doll’s Alphabet (2017) and Children of Paradise (2022).

05 October 2023

Hardback • £14.99

216x138 • 240pp

9781838956356

Territories: UK C/Wealth ex Can