The Coiled Serpent - 'So inventive that it makes other writing seem uncourageous'

An arresting, discomforting collection from 'one of Britain's best young short story writers' (Daily Telegraph) that revels in the rotten and festers in the imagination.

About the author

Camilla Grudova lives in Edinburgh where she works as a cinema operator and waitress. Her fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta. She is the critically-acclaimed author of The Doll's Alphabet (2017) and Children of Paradise (2022).

Summary

LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2024
GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

A little girl throws up Gloria-Jean's teeth after an explosion at the custard factory; Pax, Alexander, and Angelo are hypnotically enthralled by a book that promises them enlightenment if they keep their semen inside their bodies; Victoria is sent to a cursed hotel for ailing girls when her period mysteriously stops. In a damp, putrid spa, the exploitative drudgery of work sparks revolt; in a Margate museum, the new Director curates a venomous garden for public consumption.

In Grudova's unforgettably surreal style, these stories expose the absurdities behind contemporary ideas of
work, Britishness and art-making, to conjure a singular, startling strangeness that proves the deft skill of a writer
at the top of her game.

Foreword

An arresting, discomforting collection from 'one of Britain's best young short story writers' (Daily Telegraph) that revels in the rotten and festers in the imagination.

Product details

• Authors: Camilla Grudova, Grudova Camilla
• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 02.11.2023
• EAN: 9781838956356
• ISBN: 978-1-83895-635-6
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 144 mm x 23 mm x 224 mm
• Weight: 322 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Women, FICTION / Literary, Erotic Romance, FICTION / Visionary & Metaphysical, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Horror & ghost stories, Modern and contemporary fiction, Horror and supernatural fiction, Film: styles & genres, Cinema Industry, Sexual Behaviour, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary