Synopses & Reviews
A singular debut that "marks the emergence of a great, stomping, wall-knocking talent" (Kevin Barry).
Daisy Johnson’s Fen, set in the fenlands of England, transmutes the flat, uncanny landscape into a rich, brooding atmosphere. From that territory grow stories that blend folklore and restless invention to turn out something entirely new. Amid the marshy paths of the fens, a teenager might starve herself into the shape of an eel. A house might fall in love with a girl and grow jealous of her friend. A boy might return from the dead in the guise of a fox. Out beyond the confines of realism, the familiar instincts of sex and hunger blend with the shifting, unpredictable wild as the line between human and animal is effaced by myth and metamorphosis. With a fresh and utterly contemporary voice, Johnson lays bare these stories of women testing the limits of their power to create a startling work of fiction.
Review
"Fen is a lusty, voracious beast. It will tie you up, rip off your boots, and throw them off the balcony. These stories are charged by an undercurrent of crouching energy that waits, waits, waits...and then, delightfully, pounces. There’s a calm feralness to Daisy Johnson’s writing that is as refreshing as it is invigorating." Kelly Luce, author of Pull Me Under
Review
"As a reader, the world of Fen won’t leave you. That is Johnson’s power as a writer — she creates a dark, self-aware world that feels heavy and gray and covered in mist. In her universe, if you’re lonely, you can befriend a fish. Words don’t just cause emotional pain, but they form burns and welts. The ones you love can come back from the dead. To read Johnson’s stories is to live in dreams, at once both disturbing and comforting." The Rumpus
Review
"Fen was a howl I didn’t know I needed. This linked collection takes place in the marshes, where things that some might wish to keep hidden refuse to stay buried, and resurface in unexpected ways. It’s hauntingly written and full of unabashedly, refreshingly angry women who are hungry — both figuratively and literally — for things long denied them." Celeste Ng, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[Fen] is a creepy but beautiful debut book from an exceptionally talented young English author....Thanks to Johnson’s accomplished writing, dazzling imagination and unique point of view, it’s one hell of an experience. Fen is a haunting book about a haunted place, and it’s more than worth it to take the trip." NPR
Review
"Johnson has a marshy imagination and wind-whipped prose....The privations of rural teenage existence yield wild and elemental bewitchments....Crosscurrents of connection add up to a consonance that might almost be mythic." The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Daisy Johnson was born in 1990 and currently lives in Oxford. Her short fiction has appeared in The Boston Review and The Warwick Review, among others. In 2014, she was the recipient of the 2014 AM Heath prize.