WOODWORM BY LAYLA MARTINEZ

The house breathes. The house contains bodies and secrets. The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes.It was built by a smalltime hustler as ameans of controlling his wife, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter cant leave. They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subjects of public scorn, combine forces with the spirits that haunt them in pursuit of something that resembles justice.

Inthis lush translation by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott,Layla Martinezs eerie debut novel is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun. Described by Mariana Enriquez asahouse of women and shadows, built from poetry and revenge,this vision of a broken family in our unjust world places power in the hands of the eccentric, the radical, and the desperate.

HARDBACK NOVELLA