Elegant, gently sinister and psychologically complex, After Me Comes the Flood is a haunting and hypnotic debut novel by a brilliant new voice.
When John Cole becomes lost on an isolated road, he goes looking for help and stumbles into the grounds of a grand but dilapidated house. Its residents welcome him with open arms — but there’s more to this strange community than meets the eye. They all know him by name, have prepared him a room and claim to have been waiting for him all along. John finds himself drawn into a baffling menagerie. Hester, their matriarchal, controlling host; Alex and Claire, siblings full of child-like wonder and delusions; the mercurial Eve; Elijah, a faithless former preacher haunted by the Bible; and chain-smoking Walker, wreathed in smoke and hostility.
Sarah Perry
Sarah Perry was born in Essex in 1979. She has a PhD in creative writing from Royal Holloway, has been a writer-in-residence at the Gladstone Library and, from January to February 2016 was the UNESCO World City of Literature Writer in Residence in Prague. Her first novel, After Me Comes the Flood, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Folio Prize, and won the East Anglian Book of the Year Award in 2014. She lives in Norwich.
Novel Writers
Each month we invite a debut novelist to read from and talk about their work in an informal setting. Prior knowledge of the text is not essential. Topics of discussion include theme, structure, inspiration and the craft of writing. These sessions are a great way to discover new writing talent and great books.