Verge - Paperback

Rowena has always been a rebel: foul-mouthed, light-fingered, the last to leave a party. Unfortunately, she's also cursed - marked by Death since birth. When Rowena's boyfriend and father die in quick succession her mother sends her North to her gran, the one healer strong enough to lift the curse before her eighteenth birthday.
Halim is proud, independent and just a few payments away from owning his truck. Unfortunately, his latest cargo is Rowena. Every gun-patrolled, hard county border they cross poses a threat to his future, as do Rowena's increasingly dark visions.
Their journey takes them across a disunited kingdom where folk marry the old ways of spells and superstition with reawakened prejudices. Can Rowena and Halim overcome their differences and forge an alliance in order to survive?

Nadia Attia is a BFI Network Talent Executive and a published journalist. In 2019 she won the FAB (Faber) prize for fiction and was selected for the London Writers Awards. A graduate of the Curtis Brown novel-writing course, Nadia has been published in Spread the Word's City of Stories anthology, Star Songs and Luna Station Quarterly. Verge is her first novel.

Praise:

'Had me gripped from start to finish ... timely, horrifying, and hugely entertaining' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave

'Swerves through a fascinating, fractured landscape of folkloric traditions and contemporary divisions' - Cari Thomas

'A vibrant and devastating tale of loss and love ... Characters to treasure' - Saara El-Arifi