Fragile Animals (Paperback)

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On the Isle of Bute, Noelle arrives carrying the weight of her Catholic past. An ex Catholic woman and a hotel cleaner, she is still caught in the pull of familial trauma, and in memories that refuse to loosen their grip.

There she meets a man who claims to be a vampire. A sexual relationship begins between them, built on confession, on what is said aloud in the dark and what is kept back. As their talk turns sacrilegious and the weather outside grows colder, Noelle is forced to confront a desire she experiences as blasphemous, and the fear that comes with it.

The past closes in. She is hounded by memories of her mother’s affair with the local priest, and by the part she played in ending it. What she has tried to leave behind follows her into this new intimacy, shaping what she can admit, and what she cannot.