Twenty years ago Helen Franklin did something she cannot forgive herself for, and she has spent every day since barricading herself against its memory. But the sheltered life she has crafted for herself is about to change.
A strange manuscript has come into her possession, and its contents have the power to unravel every strand of her fragile safety net. It is filled with testimonies from the darkest chapters of human history, which all record sightings of a tall, silent woman in black, with unblinking eyes and bleeding feet: Melmoth, the loneliest being in the world. Condemned to walk the Earth forever, she tries to beguile the guilty and lure them away for a lifetime wandering alongside her.
Everyone that Melmoth seeks out must make a choice: to live with what they've done, or be lead into the darkness. Despite her scepticism, Helen can't stop reading, or shake the feeling that someone or something is watching her. As her past finally catches up with her, she too must choose which path to take.
*** [Look! It is winter in Prague: night is rising in the mother of cities and over her thousand spires] ***(Serpent's Tail, 2 October 2018, ebook, 320 pages, borrowed from my library)
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I thought Memoth was a fantastic read. The book is beautifully written, there are entire pages I took ages to read because I got such pleasure from just looking at the words. The book is set in present times in Prague but reads like a Gothic novel sets hundreds of years ago thanks to the structure of the novel using letters, notes and diary extracts from different periods in time. I love the way the story unfolds with Helen in the present reading various documents that deal with dark moments in various lives, stories that all share a dark, menacing presence. Helen is completely absorbed in these narratives about Melmoth it consumes her.