FALLEN LAND

Engaging with ideas of the gothic, the uncanny, and the other, THE FALLEN LAND is an urgent exploration of contemporary concerns about dispossession, land, race, surveillance, privacy, and a carceral society in which everyone is 'doing time' of one kind or another.

The author writes about this new work in progress, 9 June 2011:

Paul Krovik, a small-time home developer, buys a 40-acre parcel of land from a farm widow and retired teacher, Louise Washington, with plans to create a new suburban subdivision. At first Krovik's business thrives, but as the financial crisis hits and the property market goes bust, he loses everything: his business, his house, and his family. Blaming these failures not on his own mistakes, but on the continuing presence of Washington (whose husband was one of the last black farmers in the area) and her decrepit 19th-century farmhouse at the edge of his development, Krovik schemes to have her house condemned by the city under the laws of eminent domain.

When Krovik's own house sells at a foreclosure auction, he hides in a fallout shelter adjoining the basement, determined to drive out the new owners, Nathaniel (an insurance executive) and Julia (a robotics engineer), who have moved from Chicago. The fallout shelter does not appear on plans filed with the city, and the entrance from the main basement is disguised, so Nathaniel and Julia remain unaware both of the shelter and of Krovik's presence.

Meanwhile, the city moves to demolish Washington's house, leaving her homeless and nearly destitute. Having befriended her, Nathaniel and Julia decide to take Washington in, employing her as a live-in nanny and tutor for their young son, Copley. In the months since Nathaniel and Julia moved in, Krovik has emerged secretly from the fallout shelter at night, exploring the house, watching the new owners as they sleep, and finding ways to torment them, making them suspect that something is profoundly amiss with the house they inhabit, and leading them to suspect each other, as well as their son, of some strange deception. Washington's sudden arrival in the house is the last straw for Krovik, driving him over the brink of madness and into the commission of a horrific crime.

Patrick Flanery is a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement, and a former teacher of contemporary fiction at Sheffield University. He has degrees from Oxford University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from New York University. His debut novel, A bsolution was chosen as one of the ‘Waterstones 11’ best debuts of 2012’, longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize 2012 and the Guardian First Book Award 2012, and shortlisted for the Spears Book Award 2012.