The Hounding

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2026 'Extraordinary . . . clever, strange and beautifully written' THE TIMES 'Prompts thoughts of both THE CRUCIBLE and THE VIRGIN SUICIDES . . . Purvis is an exquisitely accomplished wordsmith.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A taut, tense tale, impeccably told' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Feverish, finely wrought and unforgettable.' DAILY MAIL 'An unflinchingly strange and savage novel - a rare and twisted pleasure, and an unmissable must-read for every girl who has ever been made to feel strange.' LUCY ROSE, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE LAMB 'Haunting and beguiling, this fever dream of a novel draws you in and colours your mind all shades of doubt and suspicion.' STACEY HALLS, Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FAMILIARS 'Melancholy and bittersweet.' OTEGHA UWAGBA, Sunday Times bestselling author of LITTLE BLACK BOOK 'A novel of rare grace and skill, exquisitely wrought and simmering with feral violence.' ROWE IRVIN, author of LIFE CYCLE OF A MOTH Many stories are told about the five Mansfield sisters. They are haughty, thinking themselves better than their neighbours in the picturesque village of Little Nettlebed. They have taken the death of their grandmother hard. They are liars, troublemakers, untamed and dangerous... Accounts of their behaviour differ, but the villagers all agree that the girls are odd. One long summer, a heatwave descends. Bloated sea creatures wash up along the parched riverbed, animals grow frenzied, ravens gather on the roofs of those about to die. As the stifling heat grips the village, so does a strange rumour: the Mansfield sisters have been seen transforming into a pack of dogs. With the witch trials only a recent memory, hysteria sets in. Slowly but surely, the villagers become convinced that something strange is taking root in Little Nettlebed. And when a bark finally leads to a bite, the sisters will be the ones to pay for it. Visceral and richly atmospheric, The Hounding plunges its reader into 18th century Oxfordshire, where the power of a man's word is absolute, and it is safer to be a wild animal than an unconventional young woman. *** 'Utterly bizarre in the best way possible' Reader Review 'A glorious shimmering heat mirage of a novel' Reader Review 'A visceral and consuming fever dream of a book' Reader Review 'Tense, almost claustrophobic' Reader Review 'Sharp and extremely enjoyable' Reader Review

Xenobe Purvis was born in Tokyo in 1990. She read English Literature at the University of Oxford, has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, and was part of the London Library's Emerging Writers Programme. She is a writer and literary researcher, with essays published in the Times Literary Supplement, the London Magazine and elsewhere.
Her debut novel THE HOUNDING will be published in 2025.