THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD

They’re all late returns here

RELEASED 4 FEBRUARY

336 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook

Author TL Huchu

Publisher Tor

The first book in this new series from TL Huchu features one of the strangest and most compelling fantasy worlds you’ll see all year. Set in Edinburgh on a world that was once recognisably ours (characters watch Murder, She Wrote repeats, the Scottish Parliament building is there but abandoned), something seismic seems to have happened around the turn of the millennium. Now, in a fascistic, decaying UK with an unnamed king, magic is accepted as real and people like teenager Ropa can speak to the dead.

The fact all this plays out against a backdrop of milk floats, daytime TV and paying the rent (although Ropa’s landlord is an actual troll) makes it all the more enjoyable. It’s not always easy to get a handle on the rules of this world, but while that can sometimes be frustrating in fantasy, Huchu pulls it off – partly because it’s clearly very well worked out, but also because Ropa’s voice is so strong, guiding the reader through this bewildering environment. She’s not out to change the world, she’s just looking to survive – and that makes her feel very real.

As well as trying to earn money through ghost-talking to support her sister and grandmother, Ropa seeks to solve the mystery of a missing child, and that of a strange and disturbing condition affecting other children in the city – and she’s also gained access to a mysterious library which has identified her as a promising magician. Having had selfsufficiency drilled into her by her impoverished upbringing, Ropa takes it all on without asking for help – leading herself into danger in the process.

All these plots do tie up, but they churn against each other in a way that’s unpredictable, sometimes horrifying and often hilarious. There’s so much to explore here, we can’t wait for the next volume.

One of Huchu’s biggest inspirations is Fyodor Dostoevsky; he re-reads the 1873 novel Demons every two or three years.