Susan Barker

"Hailed as "China's Midnight's Children," a gripping new novel about a Beijing taxi driver whose past incarnations haunt him through searing letters sent by his mysterious soulmate"--

A Novel

The Incarnations

The Historian meets Under the Skin in this searingly provocative literary horror novel about one woman’s determination to stay alive at any terrifying cost. In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko, miss a flight, and over dinner, discover they've both brutally lost loved ones whose paths crossed with the same beguiling woman no one has seen since. Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades—a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is. Part horror, part western, part thriller, Old Soul is a fearlessly bold and genre-defying tale about predation, morality and free will, and one man’s quest to bring a centuries-long chain of human devastation to an end.

Old Soul

The woman never goes by the same name.
She never stays in the same place too long.
She never ages. She never dies.
But those around her do.

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.

Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared.

Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.

And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

'A mesmerising story, brilliantly told' IAN McGUIRE

'Utterly addictive and completely immersive ...The most propulsive thing I have read all year' LARA WILLIAMS, author of Supper Club

'I was completely swept up ... It continues to haunt and unsettle me, in the very best of ways' EMILY MIDORIKAWA, author of Out of the Shadows

'Like nothing else I've ever read ... The kind of story you tell around a campfire as the lights of civilization begin to flicker out around you; a global, intelligent and ambitious archetypal nightmare' KRISTEN ROUPENIAN, author of Cat Person

‘Sinister, unnerving and nightmarish. Old Soul will sneak into your dreams and haunt you’ CLAIRE FULLER, author of Unsettled Ground

Francine Toon

Evie Wyld

James Smythe

Michel Faber

Bridget Collins

Lavie Tidhar

et al

Louisa Young

Lucy Rose

Robert Lautner

Ainslie Hogarth

J K Chukwu

Emilia Hart

Lewis Hancox

Adorah Nworah

'Outstandingly weird and memorable' GUARDIAN 'Deliciously creepy' NEW SCIENTIST Fear never dies...

Of the Flesh: 18 Stories of Modern Horror

Incarnations

Siapa kau? Begitu pasti kau bertanya-tanya. Aku belahan jiwamu, kawan lamamu, dan aku kembali ke kota berpenduduk enam belas juta ini mencarimu. Begitulah awal surat yang jatuh ke pangkuan Wang saat ia menurunkan visor taksinya. Surat-surat berikutnya penuh kisah kehidupan-kehidupan sebelumnya yang melibatkan Wang ---kabur dari pernikahan dengan wanita arwah, budak yang melarikan diri dari Genghis Khan, hidup sebagai nelayan selama Perang Opium, dan jadi remaja di Tentara Merah selama revolusi kebudayaan. Ia terikat pada “belahan jiwa” yang misterius, selama seribu tahun yang penuh pengkhianatan dan intrik. Seiring terus bermunculannya surat-surat, Wang yakin seseorang mengintainya. Dan seiring setiap surat, Wang merasa si pengintai terus mendekat… The Incarnations dengan halus menjalin cerita rakyat, sejarah, dan kisah klasik Cina, novel mencekam dan menegangkan tentang betapa sejarah terus berulang dan masa lalu tak pernah benar-benar berlalu.

Inkarnasi (The Incarnations)

Mary, a blond graduate from England, has drifted into a job in a hostess lounge in Osaka. She works for the enigmatic Mama-san and spends her evenings flirting with rich Japanese salarymen, playing drinking games and singing in the karaoke booth. Mary is in love with Yuji, Mama-san's son. But Yuji's loyalty is to the Yakuza gangster for whom he works. Watanabe, the introverted cook, watches Mary from the kitchen. He exists in his own manga-fuelled fantasy of the fourth dimension, and believes he can see into other people's souls. When he perceives the danger of Mary's growing obsession with Yuji, he resolves to protect her whatever the cost. Mr Sato works for the Daiwa Trading Corporation. Obsessive overwork cannot cure the emptiness of his solitary life as a salaryman. Lured against his will to the Sayonara Bar by his boss, he finds himself returning there to escape his dead wife's ghost. Edgy, sly, often very funny, SAYONARA BAR spins a kaleidoscopic, genre-crossing tale of people cut adrift in a globalized world.

Susan Barker

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