Parentations - Hardcover

Kate Mayfield is a novelist and memoirist. Her debut novel The Parentations is a work of speculative historical fiction. The Undertaker's Daughter is a memoir about her childhood in the American South. Her father was an undertaker in a small segregated town where her family resided in his funeral home for over a decade. She is the co-author of two additional non-fiction books and has written for The Guardian and several online magazines. After attending Western Kentucky University, Kate moved to New York where she graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She now makes London her home.

`Spanning centuries, this is an exuberant, vividly imagined and structurally triumphant novel with a strong Dickensian undertow.' * Daily Mail * `The Parentations is beautiful, innovative and atmospheric. I was completely captivated.' * Anna Mazzola, author of The Unseeing * `Epic. Gothic. Magic. Somebody better snap up the film rights.' * Jane Harris, author of The Observations and Sugar Money * `Reminiscent of both Carr's Alienist and Norfolk's John Saturnall's Feast, this debut novel is utterly compelling - acute plotting, vivid characters and writing so accomplished that Mayfield has you by the throat from the very start.' * Kate Colquhoun, author of Mr Briggs' Hat * 'Mayfield's delightfully rich and uncanny novel, The Parentations, manages to be pacy and addictive, while simultaneously asking profound questions about life and death. Quite unlike anything I've ever read before.' * Ben Fergusson, author of The Spring of Kasper Meier * 'The Parentations is a story told on an epic scale, taking the reader from the wilds of 18th century Iceland to present day Camden Town, and which is as much about the nature of love as it is about the nature of evil. Kate Mayfield weaves her uncanny tale with rich historical detail, creating an atmospheric read which is vivid and compelling.' * Sophia Tobin, author of The Silversmith's Wife, The Widow's Confession, and The Vanishing * 'So inventive and unexpected and original.' * Sally Magnusson, broadcaster, presenter, and author of Where Memories Go and The Sealwoman's Gift * `An ambitious, wildly imaginative masterpiece.' * Isobel Costello, author of the bestselling Paris Mon Amour * `A hugely impressive novel - I loved it.' * William Ryan, author of The Holy Thief * `The omniscient narrative flits from character to character, creating a kaleidoscopic effect that suits the fantastical nature of the story and the hurtling passage of the years. London itself, and the Thames, are also central characters as we watch the city and the river evolve and change through the passage of time... An intriguing novel, with elements of Nordic myth, the Dickensian underworld and Victorian gothic.' * Historical Novel Society * `Mayfield maintains an admirable control of the characters' evolution in sync with the long stretch of time that the novel covers and the story is consistently engrossing. The Parentations builds a wondrous panoramic view of history and disparate groups of people united like a family over centuries.' * Lonesome Reader * `The Parentations has all the twists, richness and atmosphere of a dark Dickensian epic but with a tale that casts its net over two centuries. It's rare for a debut novel to have this much ambition and flair but what Kate Mayfield promises in The Parentations she delivers in spades.' * Jason Hewitt, author of The Dynamite Room and Devastation Road * `The Parentations turns the epic on its head...The research is gripping and the ambition breathtaking, and the journey this story takes you on is quite unlike any other I've experienced.' * Lloyd Shepherd, author of The English Monster * `A blend of speculative fiction, historical fiction and fantasy, The Parentations is full of richly drawn characters...making for an excellent read and an author whose work I'll be extremely keen to see more of in the future.' * Bookbag * `A strange and marvellous tale of death and long, long life from a startling imagination. A joy to read.' * Michael Ridpath, author of the bestselling Fire & Ice series * 'Mayfield's prose glitters like icy stalactites illuminating the lesser-explored comers of the human (and inhuman) condition. Perfectly and sweetly chilling.' * Syd Moore, author of Strange Magic * `A sumptuously gothic tale... this is a terrific debut from a very exciting new talent.' * SFX Magazine *