The critically acclaimed psychological chiller from a powerful new voice in Irish literary fiction.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2017

'As fine as it is frightening' JOHN BANVILLE

'This one will stay with you like your shadow' Guardian

'Extraordinary . . . pitch-perfect' Irish Times

'Strange, beautiful and quietly terrifying' DONAL RYAN, author of The Spinning Heart

'Like many great works, it could so easily have all gone wrong if it hadn’t been done exactly right' Sunday Independent


It is the hottest August in living memory.

A frightened girl bangs on a door. A man answers. From the moment he invites her in, his world will never be the same again.

She will tell him about her family, and their strange life in the show home of an abandoned housing estate. The long, blistering days spent sunbathing; the airless nights filled with inexplicable noises; the words that appear on the windows, written in dust.

Why are members of her family disappearing, one by one? Is she telling the truth? Is he?

In a world where reality is beginning to blur, how can we know what to believe?