The Sacred Combe - Hardcover

'A bibliophile's delight, a mystery, a tease, a frisson of dread, a fugue, a literary detective story, a philosophical fable - its imagination exquisitely calibrated to a gentle Gothicism where Bach, Coleridge, Thomas Chatterton and Edgar Allan Poe flit among the shades. Thomas Maloney's perfectly-judged story, with its vital and resonant sense of place, will surely become one of the beloved arcana of English fiction.' --Jim Perrin, author of West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss

'An ingenious and atmospheric first novel, inspired by the discovery of a mysterious library lost deep in the English countryside, and vibrating with the literary and musical echoes of late Romanticism, and lots of weather.' --Richard Holmes, author of Coleridge and The Age of Wonder

'An exceptional first novel - intelligent, intriguing, wonderfully written, and rich with an atmosphere and sense of place that make it a joy to read.' --James Wilson, author of The Summer of Broken Stories

In this mesmerising English debut novel, a man escapes his former life to enter an enchanted place.