by Jenni Fagan
First published 2020
At the heart of Edinburgh's old town, a tenement building at 10 Luckenbooth Close becomes the silent witness to generations of lives, secrets, and transformations. Over decades, the building's residents—from a sex worker fleeing persecution in the 1910s to punk musicians in the 1980s—forge intricate connections that transcend time and social boundaries. Each inhabitant carries a fragment of a larger, darker narrative, their stories intertwining like architectural sinew. As the building absorbs their traumas, desires, and rebellions, it becomes more than a physical structure—it's a living chronicle of Edinburgh's hidden histories. Strange occurrences hint at supernatural undercurrents: whispers in empty rooms, unexplained shifts in reality, the sense that the building itself remembers. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic portrait of human resilience, where individual struggles merge into a collective pulse of survival and resistance.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: collective-narrative, interconnected-stories, silent-witness
Setting: Edinburgh
Period: 20th century
352 pages · Hardcover · Pegasus Books