Fragile Animals

SHORTLISTED for First Book of the Year 2024 at Scotland's National Book Awards

Struggling to deal with the trauma of her Catholic upbringing, Noelle, travels to the Isle of Bute. She meets a man who claims to be a vampire, and a relationship blooms between them based solely on confession. Noelle becomes hounded by memories of her past.When an ex-catholic woman develops a sexual relationship with a vampire, she is forced to confront the memories that haunt her religious past. Struggling to deal with the familial trauma of her Catholic upbringing, hotel cleaner, Noelle, travels to the Isle of Bute. There, she meets a man who claims to be a vampire, and a relationship blooms between them based solely on confession. But as talk turns sacrilegious, and the weather outside grows colder, Noelle struggles to come to terms with her blasphemous sexuality. She becomes hounded by memories of her past: her mother’s affair with the local priest, and the part she played in ending it.