I read this while I was in Whitby, and it was one of those rare moments where I allowed myself to experience the place and the writing as one. A kind of ghost story, a cunning mystery and a romance, it follows Sian, who joins an archaeological dig in the ruined Abbey, and who uncovers secrets that lead her into all sorts of unexpected danger. The town is entirely integral to the whole story, and the writing has a kind of energy and momentum that suggests Michel Faber was swept up in the place, much as Bram Stoker had been over a century before. His descriptions of running up those precarious stone steps has a kind of exhausting visceral quality that makes you crave your fish and chips even more.
First published by Canongate Books, 2001
A Personal Anthology 