Shirley: A Novel

Chillingly evocative of Jackson’s own classic stories, Shirley is an elegant thriller with one of America’s greatest horror writers at its heart.

Two imposing literary figures are at the centre of this captivating novel- the celebrated Shirley Jackson, author of The Lottery , and her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, a literary critic and professor at Bennington College.

When a young graduate student and his pregnant wife - Fred and Rose Nemser - move into Shirley and Stanley’s home in the fall of 1964, they quickly fall under the spell of their brilliant and unconventional hosts.

Rose forms an unlikely friendship with the darkly enigmatic Shirley. Nonetheless, Rose senses something amiss-something to do with nightly unanswered phone calls and a long-missing female student.

‘Shirley is a love story that will keep you up all night.’ Susan Cheever, author of e. e. cummings- a life