"From an incendiary new talent, a contemporary folktale in which a mother and daughter take in passersby and eat them, exploring queerness, first loves, and tense mother-daughter relationships. Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. They spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she picksapart their bodies and toasts them off with some vegetable oil. But Mama's want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must face the possibility that her life is changing for good. The Lamb is a folktale, a horror story, a love story, an enchantment. With this teeming, gothic debut, Lucy Rose wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it"--
In their secluded forest cottage, Margot and her mother welcome “strays,” lost travelers whom Mama feeds and ultimately consumes, but when a striking stranger named Eden arrives during a snowstorm, Margot must confront her family’s dark practices and assert her own desires.
A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.
"The Lamb . . . is not out until February but it has already created a buzz."—Sunday Times
“This is the book I've been waiting for. Dark, twisted, and utterly enthralling, The Lamb is a novel I will never forget.”—Molly Aitken, author of Bright I Burn
From an incendiary new talent, a contemporary queer folktale about a mother and daughter living in the woods, for fans of Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, and Julia Armfield.
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember.
When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.
But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make her bid for freedom.
With this gothic coming-of-age tale, debut novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire, and animal instincts—and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.
