Hex

A powerfully poignant tale of one of the most turbulent moments in Scotland's history: the North Berwick Witch Trials.

IT'S THE 4TH OF DECEMBER 1591.

On this, the last night of her life, in a prison cell several floors below Edinburgh's High Street, convicted witch Geillis Duncan receives a mysterious visitor – Iris, who says she comes from a future where women are still persecuted for who they are and what they believe.

As the hours pass and dawn approaches, Geillis recounts the circumstances of her arrest, brutal torture, confession and trial, while Iris offers support, solace – and the tantalising prospect of escape.

Hex is a visceral depiction of what happens when a society is consumed by fear and superstition, exploring how the terrible force of a king's violent crusade against ordinary women can still be felt, right up to the present day.

'This series has already produced two works of note and distinction. It raises the question – if a country cannot re-tell its history, will it be stuck forever in aspic and condemned to be nothing more than a shortbread tin illustration? Hex and Rizzio are showing the way towards a reckoning, and about time too' – Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday



Jenni Fagan is an award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, essayist and a playwright, and was writer in residence at the University of Edinburgh. In 2013 Jenni was the only Scottish writer to be on Granta's Best of Young British Novelists list. She is the author of The Panopticon (2012), The Sunlight Pilgrims (2015) and her first poetry collection The Dead Queen of Bohemia was published by Polygon in 2016, followed by There's a Witch in the Word Machine (2018).



'Witchcraft and feminism meet in one short novel that leaves a powerful impact on the reader'



'A rage-fuelled thunderbolt… but this punchy, painful novel is no sermon: Fagan cultivates the occult energy swirling around her themes, even as she explodes the myths that enables male violence'



'Exceptional… I’m still reeling from it, it is devastating…"the purest light attracts the most impenetrable darkness” – that line just resonates and resonates…  a stunning book, thank you for this'



'This series has already produced two works of note and distinction. It raises the question – if a country cannot re-tell its history, will it be stuck forever in aspic and condemned to be nothing more than a shortbread tin illustration? Hex and Rizzio are showing the way towards a reckoning, and about time too'



'Hex, for a book about such trauma and agony, is a crisp, clear book… elegant and angry in equal measure'



'Hex is a powerful, fictional retelling of the North Berwick witch trials from Jenni Fagan’



'Fagan’s writing is wild and exciting… [she] stirs up a powerful brew with her magical fable'



'One of the most stunning literary experiences I've had in years'



'[an] exhilarating, humbling homage to Geillis Duncan'



'[a] soulful, tender, powerfully moving retelling of the last days of Geillis Duncan'



'Unsurprisingly brilliant, a feminist warcry from one century to another as we spend the night with a young woman about to be slowly hanged as a witch. Beautiful, moving writing'



'A powerful and compelling short novel'



'Hex is stunning, so powerful… Beautiful work!'



'I devoured Hex and absolutely adored it. I mean, what agenuinely astonishing novel; gorgeous, heart-breaking'



'the magical and the realism are always in perfect balance… Hex is both a timely and timeless publication'



'A perfect encapsulation of everything I love about Jenni's work - brilliantly real characters, shot through with feminist anger, word choice to make you shiver, & that knack of taking the road least expected'



'Powerfully conjures a meeting across the centuries between Geillis Duncan, a young girl on the night before her execution for witchcraft in 1591, and Iris, a contemporary witch'



'this book is magnificent. I cannot think of a voice, or imagination, like Jenni Fagan’s'



'Really felt Jenni Fagan's anger coming off the page… brilliant'



'An ‘i’ Recommended Read'



'A fascinating and powerful book about the history and traumas of Scottish women'



'It's an exemplar of the form, a book that tells its story across space and time from a writer who is fully engaged with both subject and style'



'Stunning book. Read this in one sitting on a Sunday morning. It's 100 pages make such an impact. Sublime writing'



'This novel sent chills right through my bones'



'A poignant new perspective on Scotland’s notorious North Berwick witch trials'



'Hex is fantastic!'



'Packs a mighty punch and has lots of important messages about misogyny, prejudice, abuse and inaction which was rife in the sixteenth century and still permeates modern lives'



'Hex is excellent and everyone should read it'



'Visceral, damning, shimmering with literal prowess and prose all under the heady guide of something much darker, this tremendous read shall stay with you forever'



'Small but mighty … the mere fact that this tale is based on real events gives the story a powerful, disturbing authenticity'



'Fagan’s hypnotic narrative reveals the might of language which can bring its own kind of justice in one single sentence'



'Written in lucid prose, no word is wasted in this taut story. Hex is an extraordinary prose poem to the brutality, abuse, and repression of women through centuries to the present’



'I love the idea — drinking in historical fiction as a series of shots'



'Fagan’s prose could not be more suited to her subject – at times stripped back, at others almost incantatory'



'Hex is an exceptional example of how to tell a story'



'Her work gives glorious voice to ancient Edinburgh tenements, to the Devil’s daughter, to the care-home kids, to witches, to all us pariahs and cowgirls'