Description
We are so pleased to welcome the winner of the 2024 Nero Prize for Fiction, Adam S. Leslie, to discuss his ethereal, unsettling and unforgettable debut novel, Lost in the Garden.
Like an old wives’ tale, like a piece of wisdom passed down through generations which no one questioned or even thought about too hard. Like folklore. It was just something everyone knew, a rule to be followed. Don’t go to Almanby.
And yet, Heather, Rachel and Antonia are on their way. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it. And Antonia — poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather.
So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever. And as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe…
‘A surprising folk horror about everyday encounters with the incredible. Vulnerable, rooted characters come of age in a hazy, hypnotic book that reflects contemporary Britain through a distorted lens.’ – Nero Prize judges
Adam S. Leslie is an author, a screenwriter, musician and songwriter under the name Berlin Horse. Lost In the Garden is his first book.
He will be joined in conversation with A. K. Blakemore, a poet and novelist from London. She is the author of two novels: The Manningtree Witches, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize for Best First Novel, and The Glutton, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas prize.
Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.