From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a stunning, imaginative novel about a community living on a small group of islands. Sometimes utopia is not all that it seems...

'A joy to read…No writer captures the absurdity and beauty of life quite like [Jan Carson] does, and with this novel she has created something especially prescient' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

‘Warm, sharp and gloriously funny, Jan Carson writes exuberant prose about difficult people in interesting times' Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness

‘Jan Carson's understanding of, and love for, complicated human people is unmatched in contemporary literature... her best book yet’ Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crowe


It’s summer 2017 and the last few residents of the Lough Neagh Archipelago are facing imminent eviction. The flood planned to combat a devastating algae outbreak will submerge their homes, forcing them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years.

Robert-John and Marion Connolly came to the islands as children in the 1970s, following their mercurial father, an anthropologist studying the unique society that had developed there. For many, the Neagh Archipelago represented a utopia, a chance to be free of the prejudices and history of Troubles era Northern Ireland. But perhaps this utopia wasn’t all that it seemed.

Marion and Robert-John have grown accustomed to their haunted existence on the Ark, monitoring the mysterious Far Side, where ghostly figures linger and the land swallows secrets whole. How will they cope with a new life on the Mainland? Is it possible to leave the past behind? And will the Ark ever let them go...

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‘Jan Carson’s most ambitious novel yet – bold in its counter-factual conception, confident in its scope, yet intimate in the knowledge of its characters...It’s also very, very funny’ Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days

Praise for Jan Carson:

'Jan Carson is a born storyteller: her work is so imaginative, whimsical, mischievous and brave, but tender and curious too — you never know where she's going to take you next, so reading her is always an adventure. Exactly how it should be' Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies

'Jan Carson is a unique and very special writer, one of the greatest of the modern fabulists' Donal Ryan, author of Heart be at Peace

'[The Fire Starters] blew me away with its power, anger and wit' Joseph O'Connor, Books of the Year

'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times

'Absolutely magnificent: dark, witty, charming' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake

'Heart-rending, hilarious . . . It's a belter.' Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses