Where I End

Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, a modern gothic horror where a young woman falls into a dark obsession after a new artist and her baby arrive on her small Irish island.

At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her. Sometimes in the morning we find her in places. We never see her move. We just come upon her.

Aoileann is cursed. She has no friends, never gone to school. She has never left this windswept craggy isle off the coast of Ireland.

Her mother is cursed: a silent wreck Aoileann calls the ＂bed-thing.＂ Alongside her grandmother, Aoileann’s days are an endless monotony of feeding, changing, and caring for the bed-thing.

Their island seems cursed, whispering secrets only Aoileann hears. Then Rachel, a vivacious artist from the mainland, arrives with her colicky newborn. Rachel arouses yearnings Aoileann cannot fully comprehend. Soon, the unfolding of her mother’s secret tragedy and Aoileann’s pursuit of her own dark desires are both destined to unleash a maelstrom upon all three of their lives.

Described by New York Times-bestselling author John Connolly as ＂perhaps the finest Irish horror novel of the 21st century,＂ Where I End is a modern Irish gothic that will pull readers into its undertow of family resentments and relentless obsession.

Sophie White is a novelist, essayist and podcaster from Dublin. She is the author of seven books and she is currently the Arts Council Writer in Residence in DCU. Her fifth book, the bestselling memoir Corpsing (Tramp Press, 2021), was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Michel Déon Prize for non-fiction. Where I End is her sixth book and won the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. You can find her at sophiewhite.info.