The haunting and hypnotic debut novel by the author of the bestseller "The Essex Serpent." Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and winner of the East Anglian Book of the Year Award 2014.

On a hot summer day, John Cole decides to leave his life behind. He closes the bookshop that no one ever visits and drives out of London. When his car breaks down and he gets lost on a remote road, he seeks help and stumbles onto the grounds of a magnificent yet dilapidated house. The residents welcome him with open arms, but this strange community has more to offer than meets the eye. They know him by name, have prepared a room for him, and claim to have been waiting for him all along.

As days and nights pass, John is drawn into a bewildering menagerie. There is Hester, their matriarchal, controlling host; Alex and Claire, siblings full of childlike wonder and illusions; the moody Eve; Elijah – a skeptical former preacher haunted by the Bible; and the chain-smoking Walker, shrouded in smoke and hostility. Who are these people? And what do they want with John?

Elegant, gently eerie, and psychologically complex, "After Me Comes The Flood" is a compelling and hypnotic debut novel from a brilliant new voice.

Sarah Perry was born in 1979 in Essex and grew up in a deeply religious home. Isolated from contemporary culture, she spent her childhood immersed in classic literature, Victorian hymns, and the King James Bible. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Royal Holloway, completed under the supervision of Andrew Motion. She has been Writer in Residence at the Gladstone Library and is a recipient of a Shiva Naipaul Award for travel writing. She lives in Norwich.