Welcome to Curdle Creek. We're dying to make you feel at home.

Osira, a forty-five-year-old widow, is an obedient follower of the strict conventions of Curdle Creek, an all-Black town in rural America governed by a tradition of ominous rituals designed to keep the residents safe.

Curdle Creek has one particularly strict policy: one in, one out.

And one day, it is Osira's turn.

Forced into the great unknown. The sinister reality of her birthplace unravels around her. As she comes face-to-face with those she believed were lost, Osira must reckon with all she has ever been told and confront the insidious cruelties of inheritance.

'Readers who think they know where this is going will be surprised, as Osira's story has many weirder twists and turns ahead.' Guardian. 'Funny and terrifying.' People 'A wonderful novel about the worst monsters of all: people.' The New York Times Book Review

Author: Yvonne Battle-Felton

Historical fiction

Published on 30 October 2025 by John Murray Press (Dialogue Books) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 288 pages
198 x 129