A powerful literary novella from award-winning author Tade Thompson, about obsession, the creation of art and the many ways in which the urge to make can also turn into an urge to destroy.

In this shocking, and at times darkly comic, novel, a psychiatrist hired to write a short piece on Francis Bacon becomes obsessed with the artist, his life, and the characters who surrounded him. As he becomes consumed with the need to understand Bacon, and to create his own art, his grip on reality becomes increasingly tenuous, and he is haunted by disturbing figures. This short, bold piece of fiction explores how the passion needed to create art can also destroy the artist.

Tade Thompson is a writer best known for his Arthur C Clarke Award and Nommo Award-winning novel Rosewater, and the Shirley Jackson Award nominated novella The Murders of Molly Southbourne.

'A darkly weird thunderbolt of a novella... by the end you can practically taste the tang of scorched earth in the air.' Daily Mail

'An exquisite, razor-sharp exploration on the nature of all-consuming art. Tade Thompson is a wonder.' Irenosen Okojie