Hex
Darkland Tales
IT’S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591.
On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh’s High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor – Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe. As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace – and the tantalising prospect of escape.
Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king’s violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.
'It's extraordinary. Make sure it's on your radar ... Definitely going to be one of my books of 2021…gloriously transgressive' – Ian Rankin
'Fagan's prose is poetic, high-octane, built on punchy sentence' – Sunday Times
'One of the most stunning literary experiences I've had in years' – Irvine Welsh
Jenni Fagan is an award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, essayist and a playwright, and was writer in residence at the University of Edinburgh. In 2013 Jenni was the only Scottish writer to be on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists list. She is the author of The Panopticon (2012), The Sunlight Pilgrims (2015) and her first poetry collection The Dead Queen of Bohemia was published by Polygon in 2016, followed by There's a Witch in the Word Machine (2018).
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