Cursed Bread

From the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure comes a chilling new feminist fable based on the true story of an unsolved mystery. A recommended read for 2023 in The Times, Guardian, Irish Times, Scotsman, iD, Good Housekeeping, Big Issue, and Our Culture. "Sensual, luminous, transcendent. It confirms Mackintosh as one of our finest young writers," says The Bookseller.

Elodie is the baker's wife. A plain, unremarkable woman, ignored by her husband and underestimated by her neighbors, she burns with the secret desire to be extraordinary. One day, a charismatic new couple appears in town - the ambassador and his sharp-toothed wife, Violet - and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long, she stalks them through the shining streets, inviting herself into their home, eavesdropping on their coded conversations, longing to be part of their world.

Meanwhile, beneath the tranquil surface of daily life, strange things are happening. Six horses are found dead in a sun-drenched field, laid out neatly on the ground like an offering. Widows see their lost husbands walking up the moonlit river, coming back to claim them. A teenage boy throws himself into the bonfire at the midsummer feast. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town, and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop.

Audacious and mesmerizing, Cursed Bread is a fevered confession, an entry into memory's hall of mirrors, a fable of obsession and transformation. Sophie Mackintosh spins a darkly gleaming tale of a town gripped by hysteria, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.

Praise for Sophie Mackintosh: "Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes," says Deborah Levy on Blue Ticket. "An extraordinary debut - otherworldly, luminous, precise," says the Guardian on The Water Cure. "Dreamlike, tense, compelling, with a pitch-perfect ending.".