Orpheus Builds A Girl Heather Parry 9781913547660

Longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize

'A compelling, creepy tale' The Independent

'A chilling exploration of power, love and grief' Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea

'I am in awe of this wonderful book' Edward Carey, author of Little

Wilhelm von Tore is dying. As he looks back on his life he reflects on his upbringing in Dresden, his beloved grandmother and his medical career during the second world war. But mostly he remembers his darling Luci, the great love of his life, his dark-haired beauty promised to him in a dream years before they met.

Though only together for a few months in her first life, their love is written in the stars. Using scientific research compiled over decades, Wilhelm ensures that, for him and his beloved, death is only the beginning.

But through the cracks in Wilhem's story there is another voice, that of Gabriela, and she will not let this version of events go unchallenged. She tells the story of her sister Luciana, fearless and full of life, and the madman who robbed her from her grave.

Based on a chilling true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is the debut novel from award-winning author Heather Parry.

Heather Parry was born in Rotherham and lives in Glasgow. She has won the Bridge Award for an Emerging Writer, Cove Park's Emerging Writer Residency and the Laxfield Literary Launch Prize. In 2021 she was a Hawthornden Fellow. Orpheus Builds a Girl is her first novel.

'A compelling, creepy tale - and one that raises relevant questions about who "owns" a woman's body' The Independent, Book of the Month

'Superbly creepy from the start . . . Disturbing and compelling in equal measure' The Big Issue

'A chilling story of deranged infatuation, medical abuse, coercion and power' The Skinny

'A chilling exploration of power, love and grief, written with incredible precision and an almost uncanny ear for voice. Heather Parry is a major talent' Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea

'Heather Parry is a literary star of the future. I've been a fan of her writing for years, and this novel is all I hoped for and more. Bold, sinister and debate-provoking' Kirsty Logan, author of Things We Say in the Dark

'Heather Parry is terrifyingly brilliant . . . Orpheus Builds a Girl is a sinister dark flower of a book, both intoxicating and beautiful' Camilla Grudova, author of Children of Paradise

'I am in awe of this wonderful book. Truly gorgeous, generous and tender and brutal. Heather is an incredibly powerful writer' Edward Carey, author of Little

'A wild, creepy, compelling read' Jan Carson, author of The Raptures

'The most eerily fascinating Gothic novel I've read in ages, filled with gorgeous, grotesque prose - as if Carlos Ruiz Zafon had written Lolita' P. J. Ellis, author of Love & Other Scams

'A deliciously macabre voyage through one man's grotesque lunacy and the destruction he leaves in his wake' Martin Macinnes, author of In Ascension

'Sinister, grotesque and strangely beautiful - this is an intensely gripping debut, the playground for vividly unforgettable characters and a twisting, seething story, all set on a background of mustily creeping dread. I loved every horrible moment' Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block

'A tale of anguished and obsessive love, with a darker version of the truth scattered through it like shrapnel . . . Sumptuously written and impossible to step away from, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a haunting melody of a book' Katie Hale, author of My Name is Monster

'Dark, disturbing and woven through with a brilliant edge of hope. Heather Parry has created two complete and captivating voices that will play on my mind for a long, long time' Kylie Whitehead, author of Absorbed

'An instant gothic classic. Parry's deft mastery of dual narrators and unflinching attention to macabre and horrifying detail makes for a read both unsettling and compelling' Kenny Boyle, author of The Tick and the Tock of the Crocodile Clock

'Heather Parry explores how even in death women can lose agency of their bodies to the absolute extreme . . . Mesmerising, grotesque, sympathetic and gripping in equal measure' Books From Scotland