Beauty

Nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Saboteur awards. The tenth anniversary edition of the critically acclaimed short novel, with an introduction by M. R. Carey. Somewhere away from the cities and towns, in the Valley of the Rocks, a society of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their history recounted by Nate, the storyteller. Requested most often by the group is the tale of the death of all women. They are the last generation. One evening, Nate brings back new secrets from the woods; peculiar mushrooms are growing from the ground where the women’s bodies lie buried. These are the first signs of a strange and insidious presence unlike anything ever known before… Discover the Beauty. Also includes the novella The Arrival of Missives.

“Elegantly chilling, utterly heartbreaking horror.” -- M. R. Carey, author of The Girl With All the Gifts, “Aliya Whiteley’s fierce, hallucinatory the beauty is the brilliant gender-bending, post apocalyptic horror fable the world needs right now. This book messed me up, in the best way possible.” -- Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts, “What a refreshing gust of tiny spores this book explodes into, and I inhaled them all with glee.” -- Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual, “A murky delirium of sinuous language and unnerving storytelling that will delight both experienced genre fanatics and literary fiction lovers alike.” -- Kirkus, “Some of the boldest, most transgressive ideas in modern storytelling.” -- Stephanie Saulter, author of the ®Evolution trilogy

Aliya Whiteley is one of the most exciting talents in the UK. The author of five books of speculative fiction, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlisted The Loosening Skin. Her novels have been shortlisted for many awards, including the Clarke Award, the Shirley Jackson Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award. She lives in Sussex with her husband and teenage daughter.