The success of Perry's second novel The Essex Serpent contributed to a 'strong' year at Profile Books - the parent company of Serpent's Tail - whose turnover rose nearly 7% to £12.6m in the financial year to March 2017. 'So I'm thrilled to be working again with Hannah and my friends at Serpent's Tail: they've been my home since the beginning and I know Melmoth couldn't be in better hands.' Perry said both Hewson and Westland understood 'exactly what I wanted to achieve' and met the book 'with more love and enthusiasm than I'd dared hope'. I have never read anything quite like it, and we can’t wait to publish next year.'

It is impossible to describe just how breathtaking, moving, and haunting Melmoth is. Westland said she 'never doubted' that Perry's next book would be 'even more ambitious and impressive than The Essex Serpent.' She said: 'Because Sarah is a writer of such original talent, intellect and energy, the question was never how good the book would be, but what shape it might take. The title will be published in Autumn 2018. Publisher Hannah Westland acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada with exclusive Europe rights from Jenny Hewson at Rogers, Coleridge & White. 'This is a novel that transcends easy categorisations of gothic or literary fiction to speak urgently to our time.' 'Dazzlingly inventive, terrifying and beautiful, it will make readers think deeply about the human capacity for good and evil and how often the two are intertwined', the publisher said. Inspired by Charles Maturin’s 'forgotten gothic masterpiece' Melmoth the Wanderer, Melmoth begins in the present day, and takes its ensemble cast of characters on a 'spectacular' journey through time.

Serpent’s Tail has acquired Melmoth, the new novel from Sarah Perry, author of 2016 British Book Awards' Book of the Year The Essex Serpent (Serpent's Tail).

Sarah perry new book