Sealed

'We came out here to begin again. We came out here for the clear air and a fresh start. No one said to us: beware of fresh starts. No one said to us: god knows what will begin.'Timely and suspenseful, Sealed is a gripping modern fable on motherhood. A terrifying portrait of ordinary people under threat from their own bodies and from the world around them. With elements of speculative fiction and the macabre, this is also an unforgettable story about a mother's fight to survive. Heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete are done with the city. Above all, Alice is haunted by the rumours of the skin sealing epidemic starting to infect the urban population. Surely their new remote mountain house will offer safety, a place to forget the nightmares and start their little family. But the mountains and their people hold a different kind of danger. With their relationship under intolerable pressure, violence erupts and Alice is faced with the unthinkable as she fights to protect her unborn child.

About the Author

Naomi Booth is a fiction writer and academic. Her novella, The Lost Art of Sinking, emerged from research into the literary history of swooning, and won the Saboteur Award for Best Novella 2016 as well as being selected for New Writing North's Read Regional campaign 2017. Her first novel, Sealed, is a gripping modern fable on motherhood. She is currently working on a new novel and collection of short stories, and an academic monograph on passing out.In 2018 Naomi was named in the Guardian's 'Fresh Voices: 50 Writers to Read Now'. She was also picked for the 'Not the Booker' shortlist and was long-listed for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award.Naomi grew up in West Yorkshire and now lives in York, where she lectures in Creative Writing and Literature at York St John University.

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