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Our Mother's House
  • Published: 2 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9798896231271
  • Imprint: NY Review Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

Our Mother's House

Formats & editions
Paperback
2 Mar 2027
EBook
16 Feb 2027
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Seven siblings try to keep their mother’s death a secret in this haunting gothic novel reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies and the works of Shirley Jackson.

Unforgettable, darkly whimsical, and mysterious, this “extraordinary book” is an offbeat classic of English literature (The New York Times).

“Mother died at five fifty-eight.” So begins this story of seven extraordinary children who, faced with the unknown terrors of being sent to the orphanage, decide not to report their mother’s death. They bury her in the garden and build a tabernacle over her grave. To the outside world they pretend she is ill and confined to her room.

Their problems begin immediately. Curious officials make inquiries, well-meaning neighbors offer assistance. The children themselves fall to quarrelling. Then a spellbinding stranger appears, claiming to be their father. He agrees to keep their secret—and from that point the story moves relentlessly to its incredible climax.

Julian Gloag’s first and finest novel, Our Mother’s House is a paranoia-drenched tale reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and is as thrilling as it is utterly haunting.
  • Published: 2 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9798896231271
  • Imprint: NY Review Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:

Praise for Our Mother's House

“I read this book with great pleasure and deep admiration.”
—Evelyn Waugh

“This is an extraordinary book. Our Mother's House is a cause for excitement and rejoicing . . . Full of disturbing implications about the nature of children and the nature of organized societies. Each development is surprising, but right. Each child is wholly believable. Our Mother's House provokes thought as well as arousing rapt interest.”
—The New York Times

“[Our Mother’s House] drew me into its world from the first page and held me there; indeed, still holds me two days after the book has been closed . . . A penetrating and touching story, which at every point touches on even more than it speaks.” —Christopher Fry

“[The novel] achieves explosive effects with seemingly unpromising material.” —The London Magazine

“Readers who have admired Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle or William Golding's Lord of the Flies should have a fine, grisly time with Our Mother's House.” —Orville Prescott, The New York Times

“A startling and impressive book.” —Baltimore Sun

“A minor miracle.” —TIME

“Tense and chilling.” —New York Post

“Uniformly excellent.” —Pittsburgh Press