Cursed Bread

GRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS

From the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure comes a chilling new feminist fable based on the true story of an unsolved mystery . . .

'A shimmering fever-dream of a novel' Telegraph

Spring, 1951. Four people meet in a small French town: the baker and his wife; the ambassador and his wife. Two belong to the town, two are outsiders.

Some time later, strange things start happening. Horses drop dead in the fields. Children grow wild and unbiddable. Ghosts are sighted after dark. Someone is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse – but who is the predator and who their prey?

Audacious and mesmerizing, Cursed Bread is a darkly erotic mystery about a town gripped by madness, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.

'A dreamy sapphic romp' The Times

'Gauzy [and] gripping, a quietly rich maturation of Mackintosh's skill' Guardian

The Spectator Book of the Year 2023