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  • Published: 3 April 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241967355
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Gretel and the Dark




A dark, distinctive and addictively compelling novel set in fin-de-siecle Vienna and Nazi Germany - with a dizzying final twist

Vienna, 1899. Josef Breuer - celebrated psychoanalyst - is about to encounter his strangest case yet. Found by the lunatic asylum, thin, head shaved, she claims to have no name - to be, in fact, not even human. Intrigued, Breuer determines to fathom the roots of her disturbance.

Years later, in Germany, we meet Krysta. Krysta's Papa is busy working in the infirmary with the 'animal people', so little Krysta plays alone, lost in the stories of Hansel and Gretel, the Pied Piper, and more. And then the real world becomes as frightening as any fairy tale . . .

  • Published: 3 April 2014
  • ISBN: 9780241967355
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Praise for Gretel and the Dark

Powerful, heartbreaking, heart-racing, terrifying . . . It is impossible not to find yourself racing through the pages

The Times

Atmospheric and beautifully written. Gretel and the Dark will be one of the best books of 2014

The List

Dark and intriguing . . . a highly clever, original book

Daily Mail

Ambitious and enticing

Independent

Truly beautiful writing. Read this book

Guardian

A back-and-forth tale of secrets and imagination, a thoroughly engaging journey into the darkest corners of humanity

Publishers Weekly

As dark and twisting as the Black Forest . . . forbidding, secretive, richly historical, this is a gripping novel that will leave you guessing until the end

Historical Novel Review

This combination of history, mystery and fairy tale makes for engrossing and irresistible reading - right up to the ultimately redemptive final twist

Bookpage (U.S.)

Grips and shakes the reader from beginning to end. Like so many fairy tales, nothing is what it seems and attention must be paid for the greatest rewards

Gilmore Guide to Books (blog)

Wow. It's dark indeed, but within that darkness is a redemptive story, as beautiful as it is haunting. Deeply, achingly satisfying

Reading with Hippos (blog)

Deserves to be placed alongside other greats of the genre such as The Reader and The Boy in Striped Pyjamas. I urge you to read it.

Palatinate Online

Extraordinary. Granville's writing and world building are beautiful.

The Mountains of Instead (blog)

Pick this book up and read it!

Rachel Tsoumbakos (blog)