Tender

Dark truths are unearthed in South West England through a folkloric, body horror-tinged lens in Lauren Du Plessis's haunting debut novel, Tender.

When two "bog bodies" are discovered in elaborate floral graves in a Somerset fen, Nell—a successful archaeobotanist with an uncompromising veneer of perfection—seizes the opportunity to excavate their secrets. But the deeper she digs into the fertile, waterlogged earth, the more she uncovers memories of her unsettled childhood and strained relati...