Sarah Perry's prose is, on the surface, straightforward and calm - but a great sense of depth permeates it, and a sense of frantic foreboding builds through its moments of intense colour...A house and the mysteries it contains; a disconcerting, dark reservoir to which everyone's attention returns, and in general a deeply unsettling sense of place - all made me think of Fowles' The Magus, Maxwell's The Chateau, and Woolf's To The Lighthouse. I loved it. -- Katherine Angel, author of UNMASTERED
Reading Sarah Perry's extraordinary debut novel, it is hard not to reach for comparisons, if only in a bemused attempt to work out just why this book is so very good ... It is as if some doleful figure from a Kafka story, a Josef K, perhaps, had wandered into the magical otherworld that Alain-Fournier created in Le Grand Meaulnes, with its enchanted house, its strangely interim landscape, its sense that clock and calendar time no longer apply and that the land itself has become a pagan limbo, differing only from its Christian counterpart in having a function ... Little more can be revealed, not only because the novel's suspense should not be betrayed, but also because it is so hard to paraphrase its dramatic power. Without wishing to compare it with run-of-the-mill "page-turners", I could not put this book down. However, what Perry does here is to render the suspense metaphysical, one might even say environmental: we care about her characters, as we care about the characters in a novel by Thomas Hardy, say, but it is also the case that her dramatis personae, like Hardy's, are transcended by the drama that unfolds in the land, in the air and, most of all, in the water that surrounds them ... As the novel reveals its battery of abstract menace, a new comparison comes to mind: Flann O'Brien of The Third Policeman orThe Dalkey Archive ... By the close the careful reader emerges with a sense of having encountered a unique new writing talent, already working at a level of subtlety and restraint that many more seasoned novelists lack. Some of the comparisons reached for on the way may sound rather grand, in the context, but with a book such as After Me Comes the Flood, talk of a fine debut and the promise of things to come should be set aside. What makes this novel truly remarkable is its unique vision, its skilful and sophisticated characterisations, and the creation, without unseemly effects, of an atmosphere that will haunt readers long after the final page. -- John Burnside * Guardian *
A dark, marvellous novel ... Perry evokes the oppressive atmosphere in precise, elegant prose ... This mesmeric quality recalls Sebald's writing, but Gothic-smudged ... It is not good for a first novel, just very good full stop. So pour yourself a cool drink and bask in a dazzling new writing talent. -- Catherine Blyth * Sunday Telegraph *
Perry's debut successfully creates an air of real eeriness and tension ... the real pleasure here is in her insightful and convincing depiction of family. -- Lesley McDowell * Glasgow Herald *
Impossible to put down * Image Magazine *
An original and haunting book ... a mix of elegant, alluring, but subtly sinister characters ... a talented writer -- Christina Appleyard * Daily Mail *
Just occasionally you pick up a novel that is inexplicably gripping from the first page - and Perry's debut is one of them ... a hypnotic performance with an understated, dreamlike conviction. It is a remarkable first outing from a writer we should be hearing more of in the future -- Phil Barker * Sunday Times *
Perry's work harnesses the mythic power of religious and historical texts to lend weight and wonderment ... she is adept at peeling back the skin to reveal a detailed anatomy of psychological motivation ... A gripping, memorable, impressive debut. -- Holly Williams * Independent on Sunday *
A taut summer thriller * Harper's Bazaar *
A deeply creepy and startlingly well-written tale of religion and mystery -- Sam Byers * TLS *
One of my most memorable reads lately has also been one of the most enigmatic ... a beautiful, dream-like, unsettling narrative in which every word, like a small jewel, feels carefully chosen, considered and placed. Rarely do debut novels come as assured and impressive as this one. -- Sarah Waters * BookPage *
The most memorable book I've read recently is Sarah Perry's After Me Comes the Flood. It's tender, mysterious, slightly surreal and has some of the most evocative descriptive writing I've read in ages. -- Jenn Ashworth * Big Issue *
Unsettling, thoughtful, eerie ... strange and new ... It's very clever and, as a writer, very intriguing. -- Tim Pears
I am still unnerved by Sarah Perry's After Me Comes the Flood, which kneaded Beckett, Hammer Horror and Old English into a moreishly gothic but humane concoction. * Independent *
A hypnotic, irresistibly mysterious novel that's challenging and enticing in equal measures. Perry is a startlingly good writer. If she doesn't win the Man Booker prize one day, I'll be amazed. * Sophie Hannah *
