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  • Published: 13 April 2022
  • ISBN: 9781529176261
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $27.99

Redder Days




A stunning exploration of the devastating damage that can be done when power falls into the wrong hands. The powerful and timely new novel from the acclaimed author of Follow Me to Ground.

Twins Anna and Adam live in an abandoned commune in a volatile landscape where they prepare for the world-ending event they believe is imminent. Adam keeps watch by day, Anna by night. They meet at dawn and dusk.

Their only companion is Koan, the commune's former leader, who still exerts a malignant control over their daily rituals. But when one of the previous inhabitants returns, everything Anna and Adam thought they knew to be true is thrown into question.

Dazzling, unsettling and incredibly moving, Redder Days is a stunning exploration of the consequences of corrupted power, the emotional impact of abandonment, and the endurance of humanity in the most desperate of situations.

  • Published: 13 April 2022
  • ISBN: 9781529176261
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $27.99

About the author

Sue Rainsford

SUE RAINSFORD studied History of Art at Trinity College, Dublin, and works as an arts writer. While studying Visual Arts she read Simone de Beauvoir and became fascinated by the poetic, metaphorical language around the female experience. From here emerged the book's hints of magic realism and other unique imagery. Sue Rainsford lives in Dublin. Follow Me to Ground is her first novel and was longlisted for the Desmond Eliot Prize. Her second, Redder Days, is due to be published by Doubleday in 2021.

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Praise for Redder Days

A tangled, gnarled, wonderfully original, strange, beautiful beast of a book. I will be reading everything Rainsford ever writes

DAISY JOHNSON, on Follow Me To Ground

Rainsford writes beautifully with a lyrical, earthy prose which is evocative and eviscerating yet mesmerising

Irish Independent on Follow Me To Ground

A wildly imaginative exploration of desire, fear and what it means to be a person . . . Beautiful and terrifying

Sunday Times on Follow Me To Ground

Enthralling . . . Lyrical, dark and detailed, the story twists like a root, bent in one way by desire, in another by fate

Daily Mail on Follow Me To Ground

Impressive . . . Rainsford is a writer to watch

Metro on Follow Me To Ground

Rainsford's fairy and folktale sensibility blends seamlessly with horror . . . An astonishing debut heralding the career of an exciting new writer. Strange, lyrical, and arresting, this novel will draw readers into its extraordinary spell

Kirkus on Follow Me To Ground

So immense and beautiful, it's both gorgeously composed and an addictive page-turner. Sue Rainsford is an extraordinary writer.

Donal Ryan

Lyrical, hypnotic and provocative, I devoured Redder Days in a single, slightly furious sitting and have been haunted by it ever since

Jan Carson

Terrifying, exquisite, enthralling - and shockingly beautifully written

Louise Kennedy, author of The End of the World is a Cul de Sac

Unnervingly, thrillingly strange ... a masterpiece of literary horror

Cal Flyn

Incredibly moving, superbly imaginative and beautifully written

Elaine Feeney, author of As You Were

A beautifully written, enigmatic nightmare ... visceral, timely and deeply unsettling

SFX

Rainsford's spare, haunting style and willingness to tread into dark areas make this an accomplished and disturbing read.

Observer

A unique new voice in Irish writing ... I was drawn in and completely gripped by this dark, mysterious tale.

Irish Times

Brilliantly original

Irish Independent

Beautiful

Irish Times

The writing is dauntingly elliptical, the atmosphere of the novel charged with doom. Uneasy reading for uneasy times

FT