Build Your House Around My Body

'A fantastic debut... A wonderfully ambitious novel about death, snakes and female revenge...recounted with a rich, hypnotic lyricism.' The Sunday Times 'Loved this epic book beautiful, brilliant, powerful, and shivery-back-of-the-neck terrifying.' Madeline Miller, author of Circe 'Violet Kupersmiths Build Your House Around My Body weaves together Vietnamese folklore and ghosts into a visceral and brilliant read.' Stylist 'Fiction as daring and accomplished as Violet Kupersmith's first novel reignites my love of the form and its kaleidoscopic possibilities.' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas 'I am loving Build Your House Around My Body it's really difficult to believe this is a debut novel.' Jen Campbell, author of The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night 'Build Your House Around My Body is such an innovative, brilliant, haunting and compelling read.' Nguyen Phan Que Mai, author of The Mountains Sing 'A book a bit like the creatures within. It has fangs and claws. It horrifies and charms. It is the sort of book you force on your friends, just so you can talk to them about it.' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Starling Days 'A marvellous, confounding debut that moves from eerie Vietnamese forests to rundown zoos and crowded nightclubs A hugely impressive debut.' Guardian 'A labyrinthine, shape-shifting novel, deep in magical realism territory. New Internationalist 'Creepy, exciting, moving, insanely funny: a sweat-soaked reading delight... An absolute triumph of storytelling.' Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City 'Intricately plotted, flamboyantly original... By turns steamy, grisly, comic, horrific, and touching. This literally haunting tale will stay with you long after the last page is turned.' Valerie Martin, author of Property 'Dazzling... I had the sense that Violet Kupersmiths eerie and electric debut novel was spreading beyond the bounds of the page and seeping into my life... A thrilling read, acrobatic and filled with verve.' New York Times 'What a joy to return to the numinously spooky world of [Violet] Kupersmith and find the ghosts of history and family still haunting her pages... Gorgeous, completely original, and quite disturbing, usually all three at the same time.' Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times-bestselling author of Booth

Violet Kupersmith is the author of the short story collection The Frangipani Hotel. She previously taught English with the Fulbright programme in the Mekong Delta, and was a creative writing fellow at the University of East Anglia. She has lived in Da Lat and Saigon, and is currently based in the United States. Her first novel, Build Your House Around My Body, was a Finalist for the Center for Fictions First Novel Prize in 2021.