Old Soul - by Susan Barker (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A darkly romantic literary horror/thriller novel about the epic battle between love and one woman's will to stay alive, around the world and through the centuries"--

Book Synopsis

The Historian meets Under the Skin in this searingly provocative literary horror novel about one woman's determination to stay alive at any terrifying cost.

In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko, miss a flight, and over dinner, discover they've both brutally lost loved ones whose paths crossed with the same beguiling woman no one has seen since.

Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades--a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone--and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is.

Part horror, part western, part thriller, Old Soul is a fearlessly bold and genre-defying tale about predation, morality and free will, and one man's quest to bring a centuries-long chain of human devastation to an end.

Review Quotes

"Beautifully written and at times terrifying...I was completely swept up in the atmosphere of the book and the plot continues to haunt and unsettle me, in the very best of ways." -- Emily Midorikawa, author of Out of the Shadows

"Old Soul is a mesmerising story brilliantly told. The way the novel slowly reveals its dark secrets as it moves with ease and elegance across continents and eras is hugely impressive." -- Ian McGuire, author of The North Water

About the Author

Susan Barker is the author of four books. Her third novel, The Incarnations, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews' Top Ten Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. An excerpt from Old Soul won a Northern Writers' Award for Fiction in 2020, as well as funding from Arts Council England and The Society of Authors. Susan currently lives in Manchester, where she is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.