Private Rites

(Hardback)

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One of my favourite writers Florence Welch

A writer whose next move you wouldnt want to miss Observer

The bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea returns with a stunning, unsettling novel following three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world.
Theres no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded

It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else

Its been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.

Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.

As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mothers long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.

A book of extraordinary sentences, set in end-times which feel bleakly real yet pulse with a tireless, tangible force of love Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From

'Slick and slippery, Julia Armfield's latest novel is the author at her finest' Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

Armfields signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller

Julia Armfield is an era-defining writer Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time

An astonishing ambitious novel Sarvat Hasin, author of The Giant Dark

'lyrical, haunting, unsettling' Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World

Reviews

A book of extraordinary sentences, set in end-times which feel bleakly real yet pulse with a tireless, tangible force of love Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From

Delivered with Julia Armfields signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty a sharply observed exploration of grief, family and the end of the world as we know it Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller

'This characteristically eerie and emotive novel explores faith, legacy, and grief for loved ones and for the world as we know it' GQ

'Armfield writes the kind of books that stick with you for life. I am proud to be one of her biggest fans Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

Witty, brutal Private Rites has the elemental power of a thunderstorm and the thrilling emotional honesty of a first kiss. Julia Armfield is an era-defining writer Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time

Stunning Dazed

An astonishing ambitious novel that won't let you go Sarvat Hasin, author of The Giant Dark

Lyrical, haunting, unsettling, and J.G. Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope Deeply, passionately, messily human Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World

'Exquisite Armfield exceeds herself, invoking profound, existential quandaries of kinship, romance, and urbanism in a prismatic tale of end-times A masterful feat, and a joy to read Armfield is awe-inspiring Peter Scalpello, author of Limbic

A sonorous portrayal of the family as a drowned world. A narrative voice so crystal-cut with dry affecting truths that every page guillotines you with its wisdom Tom Benn, author of Oxblood

Armfield does with sentences what other people do with paintings. Beauty aches through every word of Private Rites Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds a Girl

'Intimate, unnerving and sopping wet Alison Rumfitt, author of Brainwyrms

Author Bio

Julia Armfield was born in London in 1990. She is a fiction writer and occasional playwright with a Masters in Victorian Art and Literature from Royal Holloway University. She was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 2019. She was commended in the Moth Short Story Prize 2017, longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the White Review Short Story Prize 2018. Her first book, salt slow, is a collection of short stories about bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of its characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession and love. She won the Pushcart Prize in 2020.