Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting

‘In village on the edge of a wood - once the site of a witch trial and now being torn down to make way for housing - a community is forced to reckon with its indebtedness to the landscape. Hesket is a moving and accomplished debut which describes how we are shaped by our ecology and haunted by the changes we have wrought on it’ * Samuel Fisher, author of Wivenhoe *
‘A richly atmospheric collection. Bayat conveys with elegance the eerie charm of things off kilter, things gone wrong, and things plainly horrifying, in corners of Norfolk I didn’t know exist’ * Naomi Wood - 2023 BBC National Short Story Award winning author of Mrs Hemmingway, The Hiding Game and This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things *
‘Written in confident easy prose, with a keen eye for human foibles, and full of arresting images, this unnerving tale of guilt, remorse and retribution in a quiet Norfolk village builds to a quietly satisfying denouement. I can’t wait to read more from Bayat’ * Kate Worsley, author of Foxash *
‘Elegiac and lyrical, with breathtaking close observation of the natural world, ‘Hesket’ examines the impact of mankind on the environment and the ways in which nature will always fight back… Sara Bayat is a stunning new talent and I cannot wait to see what she does next’ * Bridget Walsh, author of The Tumbling Girl *
‘I loved it even as it made me shiver, from its creepy opening kids’ drawing onwards. Hesket prickles with unease and shimmers with brilliance, hitting that satisfying seam of horror archetypes and familiar chills, packaged into a very topical story about isolation, insularity and our relationship to the land. The book’s classic tropes and claustrophobia give it a dark fatalism which mark Sara Bayat out as one to watch in future’ * Bidisha, author of Warning Signs *
‘Blending ghosts, folklore and nature-writing, Hesket: A Norfolk Haunting by Sara Bayat explores the impact on this fictional small community of a housing development which will devour part of an ancient wood’ * Financial Times, Best New Debut Novels *

Sara was born in Manchester and spent her earliest years in Stockport before relocating to an island off the west coast of Canada with her family. She returned to England to join the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia and now lives in Norwich. Her short fiction has been published in various literary magazines and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize.

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