Description
There are some facts about the world that only your mother can teach you.
So into the attic she had gone, climbing the stairs towards her promised freedom, and she would stay there until she had learned the lessons that would prepare her for the real world, the lessons that only a mother could teach.
Marguerite Perigord had been confined for the sake of her wellbeing.
That's what her mother had said.
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Marguerite has been locked in the attic of her family home, a disintegrating Chelsea house overlooking the stench of the Thames. For company she has: a sewing machine, a copy of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management and trays of congealing food carried up to her with little regularity. Marguerite has been confined by her mother, Cecile, who is concerned about her engagement to an older, near-penniless solicitor, Mr Lewis, and wishes to educate her daughter on 'proper' married conduct - lest she drag the family's good name into disrepute. But why is Marguerite pursuing the aged Mr Lewis in the first place? Why are her mother's visits seemingly becoming less frequent? And just how much time has passed since the lock closed on the attic's hatch?
Carrion Crow is a transportive and gloriously gothic commentary on the constraints of polite society - and the even greater danger of conformity - that unfurls one family's festering secrets.
'One of the most important new voices in fiction, with Carrion Crow Heather Parry deduces an unutterable Gothic horror of class and gender from the pages of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. A festering Edwardian nightmare dressed in exquisitely tailored language, Parry's vision is magnificent and devastating.' Alan Moore
About the Author
Heather Parry is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and a short nonfiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, and writes the Substack general observations on eggs. She was raised in Rotherham and lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Fidel and Ernesto.
Reviews
Carrion Crow is a book to marvel at. Beautifully written with such dark, claustrophobic precision, exploring the devastating control we assert upon one another. Such an achievement. * Rachelle Atalla, author of The Pharmacist *
One of the most important new voices in fiction, with Carrion Crow Heather Parry deduces an unutterable Gothic horror of class and gender from the pages of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. A festering Edwardian nightmare dressed in exquisitely tailored language, Parry's vision is magnificent and devastating. * Alan Moore, author of Watchmen *
Carrion Crow picks at the scabs of class, sexual liberty and body autonomy in Victorian London and chews them over with grotesque attention to detail. Sharp, claustrophobic and undeniably gross, it revels in the repulsive and positions Heather Parry as both a punk Sarah Waters and the baddest bitch in the business. I can't wait to see this strange bird fly to dizzying heights. * Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller *
Both mouthwatering and revolting, a heady poisonous pudding of a book. * Camilla Grudova, author of Children of Paradise *
Heather Parry is a literary star of the future. * Kirsty Logan *
Book Information
ISBN 9781529938685
Author Heather Parry
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Doubleday
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 400g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 138mm * 25mm
