The Followers

Rebecca Wait author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Published:21st Apr '16

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Followers cover

The arresting new novel from the author of The View on the Way Down

The gripping and shocking novel from the author of I'm Sorry You Feel That Way.

From the acclaimed author of I'm Sorry You Feel That Way, Rebecca Wait's The Followers is a tense and shocking novel about family ties and how much we can outrun our past.

'A great surging shout of a novel' – Guardian
'Profoundly unsettling, brilliantly executed' - Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven


Judith has been visiting her mother, Stephanie, in prison once a month for the last eight years. But neither of them can bring themselves to talk about what brought them here - or about Nathaniel.

When Stephanie first meets him, she is a struggling single mother and Nathaniel is a charismatic outsider, unlike anyone she's ever known. When she decides to join the small religious cult he has founded high on the moors, Stephanie thinks she is doing the best for her daughter: a new home, a new life, a new purpose. As Stephanie slowly surrenders herself to Nathaniel's will, tensions deepen, faith and doubt collide, and a horrifying act of violence changes everything.

'A page-turning finish' – Daily Mail
'Such a suspenseful and compassionate book . . . I thought it remarkable.' – Sunjeev Sahota, author of Ours Are The Streets

Wait's propulsive plotting and the complicity she creates through the power of her writing form a great surging shout of a novel * Guardian *
Wait's confident plotting leads the reader towards a climax as satisfying as it is inevitable . . . The tenderness and the transformative nature of the ending . . . are truly moving. * Independent on Sunday *
A restrained tour-de-force, a profoundly unsettling, brilliantly executed, and deeply humane depiction of a slow slide toward an unspeakable act, and the difficulty and necessity of finding a way to live in the aftermath. The Followers is a remarkable novel. -- Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven
Such a suspenseful and compassionate book, never more so than in its feeling for certain characters, the disorderliness of their inner lives, their vulnerability. I thought it remarkable -- Sunjeev Sahota, author of OURS ARE THE STREETS
I really enjoyed this quietly terrifying and suspenseful exploration of obedience to authority and the dangers of fundamentalism -- Carys Bray, author of A SONG FOR ISSY BRADLEY
Gripping * Daily Express *
Rebecca Wait describes the world of The Followers with such vividness that I dreamt about her cold, misty moorland, and with such tenderness that the ending brought tears to my eyes -- Alison Moore, Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author of THE LIGHTHOUSE
A page-turning finish * Daily Mail *
The Followers is a powerful book. Told with great subtlety and insight, it takes us to the far reaches of human experience to reveal the seams that bind together faith, logic, understanding and our sense of self - and shows how easily a psyche can be ripped apart. Rebecca Wait's writing has beauty, steel, economy and winning flashes of humour, and her plot is gripping. I was a convert from the very first page -- Ann Morgan, author of READING THE WORLD
A gripping tale of a violent sect in a flooded land, awaiting the end of the world, The Followers is also a beautifully moving story of the limits of faith and the power of family, those we make and those we choose. It will stay with me for a long time -- Peggy Riley, author of AMITY AND SORROW
The Followers is a highly affecting and beautiful novel, both tender and brutal. It's a poignant examination of power, faith and family, and a story that stays with you long after you turn the last page -- Nicci Cloke, author of LAY ME DOWN

ISBN: 9781447224754

Dimensions: 203mm x 127mm x 20mm

Weight: 386g

256 pages