Melmoth

From the internationally bestselling author of The Essex Serpent—soon to be an Apple TV+ Series“Masterful...scary and smart working as a horror story but also a philosophical inquiry into the nature of will and love. Perry did as much in her richly praised novel The Essex Serpent but this is a deeper more complex novel and more rewarding.”—The Washington PostIn Melmoth Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to The Essex Serpent a mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe for centuries searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now it is heading in our direction.It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague working as a translator she has found a home of sorts—or at least refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it Melmoth travels through the ages dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy.But unaware as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears....