Overview

'Hesket is a moving and accomplished debut which describes how we are shaped by our ecology and haunted by the changes we have wrought on it' Samuel Fisher, author of WIVENHOE 'Sara Bayat is a stunning new talent' Bridget Walsh, author of THE TUMBLING GIRL Hesket is a quiet community of ordinary people, each of whom are contending with their own private trials of everyday life. But the quaint village they call home has a dark history, and the spectre of a centuries-old trauma still lingers there today. When the threat of development targets the old woods on the edge of the village, unsettling things begin to occur, and the residents must contend with the past and confront their own demons. Are these strange events simply the anxieties of a troubled community being brought to the fore, or is there something more uncanny at work? A grieving parent refuses to believe that death is really the end. A seance takes an unexpected turn. And something monstrous is said to stalk the river... In Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting, debut novelist Sara Bayat weaves a tapestry of a small village community in which each character has their own story to tell. Merging an evocative depiction of the East Anglian countryside and the disquiet of everyday life, Bayat draws on the tradition of the English folk tale with eerie undertones reminiscent of Daisy Johnson, Francine Toon and Andrew Michael Hurley. Hesket is a tale of how loss and love can haunt and shape us.

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9781472160034

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Reviews

'Written in confident easy prose, with a keen eye for human foibles, and full of arresting images, this unnerving tale of guilt, remorse and retribution in a quiet Norfolk village builds to a quietly satisfying denouement. I can't wait to read more from Bayat' * Kate Worsley author of FOXASH * 'Elegiac and lyrical, with breathtaking close observation of the natural world, 'Hesket' examines the impact of mankind on the environment and the ways in which nature will always fight back... Sara Bayat is a stunning new talent and I cannot wait to see what she does next' * Bridget Walsh * 'In village on the edge of a wood - once the site of a witch trial and now being torn down to make way for housing - a community is forced to reckon with its indebtedness to the landscape. Hesket is a moving and accomplished debut which describes how we are shaped by our ecology and haunted by the changes we have wrought on it' * Samuel Fisher, author of Wivenhoe * 'A richly atmospheric collection. Bayat conveys with elegance the eerie charm of things off kilter, things gone wrong, and things plainly horrifying, in corners of Norfolk I didn't know exist' * Naomi Wood - 2023 BBC National Short Story Award winning author of Mrs Hemmingway, The Hiding Game and This is Why We Can't Have Nice Thing * 'I loved it even as it made me shiver, from its creepy opening kids' drawing onwards. Hesket prickles with unease and shimmers with brilliance, hitting that satisfying seam of horror archetypes and familiar chills, packaged into a very topical story about isolation, insularity and our relationship to the land. The book's classic tropes and claustrophobia give it a dark fatalism which mark Sara Bayat out as one to watch in future' * Bidisha, author of WARNING SIGNS *

'Written in confident easy prose, with a keen eye for human foibles, and full of arresting images, this unnerving tale of guilt, remorse and retribution in a quiet Norfolk village builds to a quietly satisfying denouement. I can't wait to read more from Bayat' * Kate Worsley author of FOXASH *

Author Information

Sara was born in Manchester and spent her earliest years in Stockport before relocating to an island off the west coast of Canada with her family. She returned to England to join the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia and now lives in Norwich. Her short fiction has been published in various literary magazines and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize.

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