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In New Mexico, a woman and a teenager set out together across the desolate Badlands. But what does the sophisticated Therese want from 17-year-old Rosa, a hotel cleaner she has only just met? In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko miss their flight, and over dinner discover they have both lost loved ones whose paths crossed with a beguiling woman no one has laid eyes on since.
Following the traces this woman left behind as she moved from country to country, Jake gathers testimonies from other troubled souls who encountered her across the years, until finally the trail leads him to a sculptor in Taos County, New Mexico who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is.
Thrilling, frightening, and above all deeply moving, Old Soul is a novel about vulnerability and predation, loss and impermanence, freedom and transgression. Transporting us through decades and continents, it dances across genres with blazing originality.
''A mesmerising story, brilliantly told'' IAN McGUIRE
''What a ferociously talented writer Susan Barker is'' ANNA HOPE
''Susan Barker is a born storyteller'' JOHN BOYNE
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Barker's finely written novel is super-sophisticated horror, as indebted to literary fiction... as it is to gothic gore. If the Booker prize judges are open to genre titles, it wouldn't be too surprising to see it on their longlist JD The Times
