Overview

‘A novel to marvel at … ingenious’ SOPHIE MACKINTOSH ‘Astonishing’ MICHAEL MAGEE ‘Wicked and beguiling’ AMY TWIGG The acclaimed author of The Doloriad returns with a wildly imaginative new novel following a reclusive graduate as her attempts to navigate campus conspiracies set her on a collision course that will upend her life. In a famed but crumbling university city overrun by vegetation, where power is held in a fragile balance between the academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners, Agathe spends her days listlessly propping up the career of her fraudulent professor boss. One day, a campus scandal erupts: Adam, a contrarian and the pet student of her boss, comes into heated conflict with a rising young professor, with both men claiming discrimination. As the crisis consumes the university, Agathe’s boss instructs her to gather information by befriending Adam. Agathe soon finds herself both caught up in the events tearing the city apart and increasingly drawn towards the alluring student at the heart of it all. But can anyone be taken at their word in a struggle over the truth? Coursing with icy suspense and rendered with violent precision, The Vivisectors is a new kind of love story for a broken era. Missouri Williams holds up a mirror to humanity’s most intimate contradictions in a novel of blazing spiritual reckoning. ‘Missouri Williams writes with a gothic angularity that puts her in a category of one. She swims in deep waters and surfaces now as a major writer for our age’ PAUL LYNCH, author of Prophet Song ‘The anti-feel good hit of the year’ FERNANDO A. FLORES, author of Brother Brontë ‘The extraordinary imagination of Missouri Williams’ AMINA CAIN, author of Indelicacy ‘Clever, wilful, daring … I had such a blast reading it’ SUSANNAH DICKEY, author of Common Decency ‘Hypnotic … this remarkable novel will haunt me for some time’ SARA BAUME, author of Seven Steeples ‘Beautiful, disturbing … I adored this book’ HARRIET ARMSTRONG, author of To Rest Our Minds & Bodies ‘As brilliant as it is dark … unlike anything I’ve read before’ VULTURE

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Reviews

Praise for The Vivisectors: ‘An astonishing novel by an astonishing writer. Playful, digressive, and pulsating with existential energy, Missouri Williams' newest contribution harkens back to the roots of the novel, the realms of boundless freedom that characterise the greatest works of eighteenth century literature, and drags them forth to the contemporary moment. It's exhilarating, transcendent even, and speaks to the deep and profound malaise characterising the modern human experience. I am in awe’ Michael Magee, author of Close To Home ‘As brilliant as it is dark, full of unsettling, revelatory allegory, and frankly unlike anything I’ve read before’ Vulture Praise for The Doloriad: 'A brilliant, unsettling, gothic take on a Greek tragedy' i-D 'Gothic, strange, provocative … a powerful debut from a truly original new voice' Cosmopolitan 'Reminiscent of something that might be served up by the Coen brothers … Missouri Williams, it is safe to say, is a writer to watch' Pop Matters 'A formidable novel about the ancient beauty of just staying alive' The Skinny 'A wild and wholly original contribution to the growing genre of climate fiction' Literary Review 'The most disturbing book I’ve read this year … an extraor­dinary reading experience' Locus 'Williams is a formidably talented writer, whose dark prognostications are both thrilling and frightening to behold' Mary South, author of You Will Never Be Forgotten 'Comes in hot like a blazing comet from a distant universe: wholly, unexpected, shocking, brilliant' Elvia Wilk, author of Oval 'Horrible and riveting, I could not look away' Jac Jemc, author of The Grip Of It

Praise for The Doloriad: 'A brilliant, unsettling, gothic take on a Greek tragedy' i-D 'Gothic, strange, provocative … a powerful debut from a truly original new voice' Cosmopolitan 'Reminiscent of something that might be served up by the Coen brothers … Missouri Williams, it is safe to say, is a writer to watch' Pop Matters 'A formidable novel about the ancient beauty of just staying alive' The Skinny 'A wild and wholly original contribution to the growing genre of climate fiction' Literary Review 'The most disturbing book I’ve read this year … an extraor­dinary reading experience' Locus 'Williams is a formidably talented writer, whose dark prognostications are both thrilling and frightening to behold' Mary South, author of You Will Never Be Forgotten 'Comes in hot like a blazing comet from a distant universe: wholly, unexpected, shocking, brilliant' Elvia Wilk, author of Oval 'Horrible and riveting, I could not look away' Jac Jemc, author of The Grip Of It

Praise for The Vivisectors: ‘An astonishing novel by an astonishing writer. Playful, digressive, and pulsating with existential energy, Missouri Williams' newest contribution harkens back to the roots of the novel, the realms of boundless freedom that characterise the greatest works of eighteenth century literature, and drags them forth to the contemporary moment. It's exhilarating, transcendent even, and speaks to the deep and profound malaise characterising the modern human experience. I am in awe’ Michael Magee, author of Close To Home ‘As I read The Vivisectors, I thought of the dark strangeness of Bruno Schulz and Shirley Jackson, all while experiencing the singular, unbroken, and extraordinary imagination of Missouri Williams’ Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy ‘Missouri Williams has paired the remote and mysterious style of the gothic novel with a narrator who you want to know everything about. When she does show her hand it’s like a gift – fun, biting and wise’ Zoe Dubno, author of Happiness and Love ‘As brilliant as it is dark, full of unsettling, revelatory allegory, and frankly unlike anything I’ve read before’ Vulture

Author Information

Missouri Williams is the author of The Doloriad, which won the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her work has also appeared in The Nation, The Baffler, The Believer, Granta and The Drift.

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