Latest news with #XenobePurvis
Washington Post
06-08-2025
- Washington Post
In this novel, five sisters are turning into dogs. Or are they?
In 1701, a real doctor named John Friend published a curious account in a scientific journal. The year before, he wrote, a rumor spread that a group of girls in the Oxfordshire countryside, west of London, 'had been seized with frequent barking in the manner of dogs.' Friend's report is the inspiration for 'The Hounding,' writer Xenobe Purvis's tense and absorbing debut novel about a village upended by fear of a group of girls who may be possessed by supernatural spirits.
New York Times
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
5 Eerie Sisters Who Morph Into Dogs? This Town Has Even More to Fear.
THE HOUNDING, by Xenobe Purvis Welcome to Little Nettlebed, England, where the 'season of strangeness' has begun. Heat is addling every resident's mind, priming them to feel indiscriminate rage — toward even 'the sound of the birds, the air on their skin.' A sturgeon, huge and unholy, is found beached along the shrinking river. And there are the Mansfield girls — five orphaned, aloof sisters in mourning, whose self-possession and inscrutable mien make their neighbors uneasy. The local drunk, a misogynistic ferryman named Pete Darling, swears he's seen them transform into a pack of dogs, and before long, news of his dubious vision has bolted around town. Xenobe Purvis's outstanding debut novel, 'The Hounding,' unfolds in 1700s Oxfordshire, but the atmosphere of paranoia and bloodthirsty groupthink often feels uncomfortably familiar. The Mansfields — Anne, Elizabeth, Hester, Grace and Mary, so close that their names spoken aloud sound like an incantation, or a prayer — live just beyond town with their grandfather Joseph, a recent widower. Half-blind and benevolent, like a sweetly fictionalized John Milton, Joseph presides over what once was a happy, liberated farm. His wife had a fiercely independent streak: a point of pride for Joseph, and a trait they nurtured in their granddaughters. Now his greatest wish is to protect the girls from malign incursions, and he's right to worry — beyond his home is 'a ravenous world, a world with teeth.' True to its name, there's an ominous air throughout Little Nettlebed. 'If violence was their god, then the alehouse was their church,' Purvis writes of the villagers. No one models this better than Pete Darling, who is prone to visitations from angels and vaguely biblical dreams while recovering from a bender. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Marie-Antoinette and a ferocious gold rush in this months historical fiction: The Tarot Reader of Versailles by Anya Bergman, The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis, The Rush by Beth Lewis
The Tarot Reader of Versailles is available now from the Mail Bookshop The Tarot Reader of Versailles by Anya Bergman (Manilla Press £16.99, 480pp) The author of the dynamic The Witches Of Vardo heads onto the bloody streets of the French Revolution in this equally propulsive epic in the company of two extraordinary women – Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand, the titular tarot card reader (and a real historical figure), and Cait, an Irish scullery maid with psychic gifts. Marie Anne, loyal to Queen Marie Antoinette, and firebrand Cait, whose leanings are more republican, unite to make their fortunes in volatile Versailles. The prose is lush, the love stories beguiling, but Bergman doesn't shy away from the horror of the reign of terror and the harsh realities of change. The Hounding is available now from the Mail Bookshop The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (Hutchinson Heinemann £16.99, 272pp) There's a haze of heat over the small, claustrophobic village of Little Nettlebed in 18th-century Oxfordshire, the setting for Purvis's haunting debut. The days are parched, the river is drying up and people's thoughts are addled, honing in on five unconventional Mansfield sisters. Rumour has it that the siblings can transform themselves into dogs – and in this 'season of strangeness', there's great danger in being different. Purvis's story is brimful of dark foreboding; unsettling hints of violence ripple through her prose and there's a fearful sense that the sisters' safety is at stake. Reminiscent of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, this debut is feverish, finely wrought and unforgettable. The Rush by Beth Lewis (Viper £18.99, 400pp) Canada, 1898, and the frozen bleakness of the Yukon has been gripped by gold fever. Ramshackle claims have been staked, desperate men are seeking their fortune, and Dawson City is the scene of lawlessness. Into this chaotic mix, Lewis places three strong-minded, spirited women. Journalist Kate is searching for her rebellious sister; bar owner and brothel keeper Martha is determined to keep her business from the local hard-man, while Ellen is worried about her safety as her prospector husband loses his perspective. When a woman is found murdered, the lives of the three women intertwine as they search for the killer. A rip-roaring adventure that's rich with drama and gutsy plotlines.
