The Unworthy

The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive,violent religious orderwhile outside the world has fallen into chaos. From her cell in a mysterious conventa woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can findΓÇödiscarded inkdirtand even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhooddeemed an unworthyshe dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outsidethe world is plagued by catastropheΓÇöcities are submerged underwaterelectricity and the internet are nonexistentand bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruelbarren landscape. Insidethe narrator is controlledpunishedbut safe. But when a stranger makes her way past the convent wallsjoining the ranks of the unworthyshe forces the narrator to consider her long-buried pastΓÇöand what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closerthe narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own pastthe environmental futureand her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why canΓÇÖt she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened? A searingdystopian tale about climate crisisideological extremismand the tidal pull of our most violentexploitative instinctsthis is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.