Meet Me at the Surface

(Paperback)

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A haunting ode to Cornish folklore and the secrets of the places we call home
Everything that comes from the ground has to go back down eventually

Merryn grew up on the wilds of Bodmin moor, raised by her mother and her aunt in an old farmhouse. Here, the locals never leave the village, fear for the future of their farms and cling desperately to the folkloric tales that are woven into their history. Except Merryn, who has escaped to Manchester for university, briefly untethering herself from her past.

When Merryn returns home for the memorial service of her ex-girlfriend Claud, she finds her childhood home stranger and more secretive than ever. Shes sure that her mother is hiding something. The villagers are hunting on the moors at night, but for what And then theres a notebook, found in an old chest of drawers, full of long-forgotten folklore that seems to be linked somehow to Claud

Reviews

Meet Me At The Surface is a book where language feels like hands reaching into the soil, where landscapes feel alive, where sentences, houses and memory are suffused with the uncanny. It manages to do the magic trick of containing a propulsive narrative whilst being formally inventive, weaving complex narrative strands into a compelling, beguiling tapestry. It is an astonishing book by a special writer, who I have no doubt has a hugely successful career ahead of her Tom De Freston, author of Wreck

Assured and beautifully written, Jodie Matthews novel is an astonishing debut. Its rare to find the Cornwall which most of us Cornish recognise in modern literature, but its here in all its vivid and magical glory. Rhythmic, atmospheric and endearing Charlie Carroll, author of The Lip

Author Bio

Jodie Matthews is a queer Cornish writer and poet, living and working in the West Midlands as a gardener. She has written for numerous publications including Ladybeard, Parallel, and Ramona magazines, and she runs a successful bookstagram account @jodierhianmatthews. Meet Me At The Surface is her first novel, and it was shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award and the Blue Pencil First Novel Award 2021.