What People Are Saying about Verge (paperback out 11 Apr 2024)
“This is a road-trip novel through a dystopia which McCarthy would be proud of… Such a strange and haunting debut! Attia's spellbinding sentences and wonderful characters draw you into a story unlike any other. This is an author to watch”
— T.L. Huchu, author of The Library of the Dead
“A gripping debut. Verge swerves through a fascinating, fractured landscape of folkloric traditions and contemporary divisions, driving its compelling duo to the edge of their own wilderness”
— Cari Thomas, author of Sunday Times bestseller Threadneedle
“Verge is a marvellous story of crossroads: crossroads of life, of magic, of politics, of place. I fell for Rowena and Halim; I was with them at every twist and turn of their strange journey. Come, it's the journey of a lifetime”
— Francesco Dimitri, author of The Book of Hidden Things
“An enthralling trip through a changed British landscape, funny and ominous by turns, digging deep into folk beliefs and the power of curses and blessings”
— Kim Newman, author of the Anno Dracula series and renowned film critic
“A twisted road trip through a nightmarish vision of our not-so-distant future, this had me gripped from start to finish. Timely, horrifying and hugely entertaining”
— Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies, The Girl of Ink and Stars
“A propulsive & hallucinatory road trip… with a cursed young woman & a man full of fire. Verge is literary folk horror of the highest calibre. A triumphant debut of huge ambition”
— Eva Dolan, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Zigic and Ferreira series
“Mixing folklore, foreboding and the fractures in today’s society, Verge is a powerful debut, stylistically written by a huge talent. Nadia Attia is one to watch’
— Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby
“A vibrant and devastating tale of loss and love… Halim and Rowena are characters to treasure”
— Saara El-Arifi, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Final Strife
End of the F*cking World meets Midsommar with touches of Lanny in Nadia Attia’s debut novel, a folk-horror tinged road-trip that will take you to places not marked on any map…
Everyone Rowena Murray loves dies.
If she’s to have any chance of breaking this curse she must make the long journey north to her grandmother, a renowned healer. Yet the once-United Kingdom is a divided nation where county borders are as hard as the people within them, and all the signs tell her that Death is close.
Halim Hosny is lost.
Torn between the city life his parents expect him to lead and the freedom of the road, he’s struggling to make his own way, on his own terms. He’ll take any well-paid job – even if it means transporting a girl with a curse on her back across a Kingdom on the brink of a new Dark Age.
Will they survive this superstitious and broken world?
Verge is about the power of belief, and about finding your own path. A speculative fiction novel perfect for fans of folklore, ritual, old traditions, Tarot, omens, dark and atmospheric journeys, hedonistic highs, the supernatural and nature itself.