Meet Me at the Surface

By: Jodie Matthews

Narrated by: Kit Griffiths

A haunting ode to Cornish folklore and the secrets of the places we call home

'This powerfully brutal novel is the most exciting thing I've read in years' S. J. WATSON

'A strange and beautiful novel' OBSERVER

'A wild and darkly exuberant ride of a novel' JEFF VANDERMEER

Everything that comes from the ground must go back down… eventually

Merryn grew up on the wilds of Bodmin moor, raised by her mother and her aunt in an old farmhouse. Here, the locals never leave the village, fear for the future of their farms and cling desperately to the folkloric tales that are woven into their history. Except Merryn, who has escaped to Manchester for university, briefly untethering herself from her past.

When Merryn returns home for the memorial service of her ex-girlfriend Claud, she finds her childhood home stranger and more secretive than ever. She’s sure that her mother is hiding something. The villagers are hunting on the moors at night, but for what? And then there’s a notebook, found in an old chest of drawers, full of long-forgotten folklore that seems to be linked somehow to Claud…

©2024 Jodie Matthews (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

'Mysterious and otherworldly, this powerfully brutal novel is the most exciting thing I've read in years' S. J. Watson

'A wild and darkly exuberant ride of a novel, feral and surprising, with sublime writing and a deep understanding of human nature' Jeff VanderMeer

'A lyrical exploration of landscape, folklore and self. Brilliantly captures the feelings of not fitting in and the intensity of first love' Emily Barr

‘A strange and beautiful novel from a first-time author who skillfully wields mystery and unease' Observer

‘A book where language feels like hands reaching into the soil, where landscapes feel alive, where sentences, houses and memory are suffused with the uncanny. An astonishing book by a special writer' Tom De Freston

‘Assured and beautifully written, an astonishing debut. It’s rare to find the Cornwall which most of us Cornish recognise in modern literature, but it’s here in all its vivid and magical glory. Rhythmic, atmospheric and endearing’ Charlie Carroll

'A brilliantly modern take on the Celtic folkloric tradition and a beautifully written lament that creeps under the skin long after you have finished reading. Affecting and deeply absorbing' Jade Angeles Fitton

‘As haunting, strange and brooding as the Cornish moors it so beautifully invokes. A masterful handling of forgotten folklore’ Jody Cooksley