CARRION CROW BY HEATHER PARRY

There are some things only your mother can teach you . . .

In this viscerally strange and dark, queer Victorian gothic, longing and transformation take wing through the secret selves we nurture when no one is watching.

A fetid feast of body horror and delirium.” Booklist

Marguerite Prigord is locked in the attic of her family home, a towering Chelsea house overlooking the stinking Thames.

For company she has a sewing machine,Mrs. Beetons Book of Household Management,and a carrion crow who has come to nest in the rafters. Restless, she spends her waning energies on the fascinations of her own body, memorising Mrs. Beetons advice and longing for life outside.

Ccile Prigord has confined her daughter Marguerite for her own good.

Ccile is concerned that Marguerites engagement to a much older, near-penniless solicitor, will drag the family name her husbands name, that is into disrepute. And for Ccile, who has worked hard at her own betterment, this simply wont do. Cciles life has taught her that no matter how high a woman climbs she can just as readily fall.

Of course, both have their secrets, intentions and histories to hide. As Marguerites patience turns into rage, the boundaries of her mind and body start to fray.

And neither woman can recognise what the other is becoming.

Fusing grisly body horror with raw and evocative prose, this unforgettably haunting gothic novel from award-winning author Heather Parry is a story of mothers and daughters, and the dual capacity for both great kindness and unfathomable cruelty.

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