The Vivisectors

£16.99

‘An astonishing novel by an astonishing writer’ MICHAEL MAGEE

‘A novel to marvel at ? ingenious’ SOPHIE MACKINTOSH

‘The anti-feel good hit of the year’ FERNANDO A. FLORES

‘The extraordinary imagination of Missouri Williams’ AMINA CAIN

Pre-order

Scheduled for publication on 21st May, 2026
The book will be available on or after this date. If you would like to preorder a copy, we will notify you when it is ready to collect.

SKU: 9780008725280 Category: Tags: , Publisher/imprint : 4th Estate
Page count : 256
Published on 21st May, 2026

Description

‘An astonishing novel by an astonishing writer’ MICHAEL MAGEE

‘A novel to marvel at ? ingenious’ SOPHIE MACKINTOSH

‘The anti-feel good hit of the year’ FERNANDO A. FLORES

‘The extraordinary imagination of Missouri Williams’ AMINA CAIN

The acclaimed author of The Doloriad returns with a wildly imaginative and daring new novel following a reclusive graduate as her attempts to navigate campus conspiracies set her on a collision course that will upend her once quiet life.

In a famed but crumbling university city overrun by vegetation, where power is held in a fragile balance between the academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners, Agathe spends her days listlessly propping up the career of her fraudulent professor boss. One day, a campus scandal threatens to rupture her carefully managed routine: Adam, a contrarian and the pet student of her boss, comes into heated conflict with a rising young professor, with both men claiming discrimination. As the crisis consumes the university, Agathe remains unmoved. But when her boss instructs her to turn double agent and gather information by befriending Adam, Agathe finds herself both caught up in the events tearing the city apart and increasingly drawn towards the alluring student at the heart of it all. But can anyone be taken at their word in a struggle over the truth?

Coursing with icy suspense and rendered with violent precision, The Vivisectors is a new kind of love story for a broken era. Missouri Williams holds up a mirror to humanity’s most intimate contradictions and reflects them back through a novel of blazing spiritual reckoning.

‘Missouri Williams writes with a gothic angularity that puts her in a category of one. She swims in deep waters and surfaces now as a major writer for our age’ PAUL LYNCH, author of Prophet Song

‘Missouri Williams is a writer of the first order’ OISÍN FAGAN, author of Eden’s Shore

‘A clever, wilful, daring novel? I had such a blast reading it’ SUSANNAH DICKEY, author of Common Decency

‘Hypnotic and sublimely disturbing ? this remarkable novel will haunt me for some time’ SARA BAUME, author of Seven Steeples

‘Fun, biting and wise’ ZOE DUBNO, author of Happiness and Love

‘As brilliant as it is dark ? unlike anything I’ve read before’VULTURE

Additional information

Weight 0.27 kg
Dimensions 22.2 × 14.1 × 2.1 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Pages

Language

Edition

Dewey

Readership