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Marguerite has been locked in the attic of her family home, a disintegrating Chelsea house overlooking the stench of the Thames. For company she has: a sewing machine, a copy of Mrs Beeton''s Book of Household Management and trays of congealing food carried up to her with little regularity. Marguerite has been confined by her mother, Cecile, who is concerned about her engagement to an older, near-penniless solicitor, Mr Lewis, and wishes to educate her daughter on ''proper'' married conduct - lest she drag the family''s good name into disrepute. But why is Marguerite pursuing the aged Mr Lewis in the first place? Why are her mother''s visits seemingly becoming less frequent? And just how much time has passed since the lock closed on the attic''s hatch? Carrion Crow is a transportive and gloriously gothic commentary on the constraints of polite society - and the even greater danger of conformity - that unfurls one family''s festering secrets.
About the author
Heather Parry is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel,
Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection,
This Is My Body, Given For You, and a short nonfiction book,
Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, and writes the Substack
general observations on eggs. She was raised in Rotherham and lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Fidel and Ernesto.
Report
Carrion Crow, surely, will win awards . . . Every sentence oozes a crushed purple poetry, overripe with devastation and wretchedness . . . If you finish it feeling you might just skip dinner, then you also feel filled with awe for a writer so gifted at conveying this much ick in such luxuriant, refulgent style. Observer
