Curdle Creek: A Novel [Hardcover]

Winner of a Shirley Jackson Award

For fans of The Lottery andThe Hunger Games, this novel set in a small town with a sinister tradition is chilling in the best possible way.

Curdle Creekis a thoughtful, sinister tour-de-force.
Tananarive Due,L.A. TimesBook Prize-winning author ofThe Reformatory

Welcome to Curdle Creek, a place just dying to make you feel at home.

Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of the remote all-Black town thats stuck in the past and governed by ominous rituals including a one in, one out population policy. Though shes always been considered blessed, her luck changes when her grown children run off to parts unknown, she comes in second to last in the Running of the Widows, and her father flees after his name is called in the annual Moving On ceremony.

Forced to jump into a well in a test of allegiance, Osira finds herself transported first back in time, and then into another realm where she must answer for crimes committed by Curdle Creek. Exile forces her to jump realms again, landing Osira even farther away from home, in rural England. Safe there as long as she sticks to the rules, she quickly learns there are consequences for every kindness. Each jump could lead Osira anywhere, but will she ever find a place to call home?

Curdle Creekis an American Gothic in the tradition of Shirley Jackson that offers a mash-up of the surreal and literary horror that will appeal to fans ofRing Shout,The Salt Grows Heavy, andLovecraft Country. Yvonne Battle-Feltons propulsive tale is layered and eerie and quite unlike anything else.