Household dysfunction on the finish of the world, and the lady who challenged Victorian medication

I’ve to confess I haven’t learn all that a lot Shakespeare, so after I hear {that a} present work of fiction is a retelling of one in every of his classics, I’m not routinely excited by choosing it up simply on the idea of that. However Julia Armfield is one in every of my favourite up to date authors — please try her brief story assortment, salt gradual, and her debut novel, Our Wives Underneath the Sea — so her new e-book, described as a speculative reimagining of King Lear, was an instantaneous buy for me. In Personal Rites, the world is underwater and it rains endlessly. Society has constructed upward to outlive, thanks largely to the designs of 1 revered architect. However he’s sort of a horrible individual. When he dies, his estranged daughters are introduced collectively, and it’s a sophisticated reunion.

Personal Ceremony follows the sisters, Isla, Irene and Agnes, within the aftermath of their father’s demise as they uncover darkish household secrets and techniques whereas grappling with their very own interpersonal points. And, that is all taking place at a time that’s principally the tip of the world. It’s fantastically written, with a haunting, melancholic tone that immediately attracts you in.