Luna Press will release Tiffani Angus's incredible debut novel: the historical fantasy, Threading the Labyrinth. The novel was originally published by Unsung Stories, in 2020, and was a finalist for both the British Fantasy Society and British Science Fiction Association Best Novel awards. When Unsung unfortunately closed its doors earlier this year, we were delighted to be able to welcome Threading the Labyrinth to the Luna family. And it will be a revised and expanded edition, with a brand new short story linked to the novel.
“A poignant and elegant meditation on time and identity.” M.R. Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts
“Full of sensual mystery, strange dreams, and haunting and peculiar magic. A beautiful debut.” Alison Littlewood, author of The Hidden People and A Cold Season
About Threading the Labyrinth:
Toni, the American owner of a failing gallery, is unexpectedly called to Hertfordshire when she inherits a manor house from a mysterious lost relative.
What she really needs is something valuable to sell to save her business.
But, leaving the New Mexico desert behind, all she finds are a crumbling building, overgrown gardens, and a vast archive in need of cataloguing.
Soon she is immersed in the history of the house: the gardens that seem to change in the twilight; the ghost of a fighter plane from World War Two; the figures she sees from the corner of her eye. She must ask herself, what if her heritage has carried lives across centuries.
“If Robert Macfarlane wrote a ghost story this would be it. Haunting, delicate and multilayered, Angus channels her own humane understanding of our relationship with the quiet places of the world, the places hidden away, neglected, but always eager to blossom with the right kind of attention.” Helen Marshall, award-winning author of The Migration and Gift for the One Who Comes After
Tiffani Angus on Threading the Labyrinth:
Threading the Labyrinth is the result of several years of research into the history of English gardening history, the focus of my PhD. The novel follows 400 years in a haunted English garden; basically, it’s Tom’s Midnight Garden or The Children of Green Knowe, but for adults, with stories set in the 1620s, 1770s, 1860s, 1940s and 2010, mainly from the point of view of the women who work in the garden rather than the landowners. I’ve always loved stories about time slips and multi-generational novels, where we get to follow a family line through the generations. In Threading, I get to do all of this, with a garden that holds on to time, characters who see and hear people from the past and the future, and threads of family connections through the centuries that readers get to unravel. People often assume I must have a huge garden or know all about taking care of every type of plant, but in fact I grew up in the American Southwest without a garden of any type! I did have a garden for a while in the US after buying a house from a landscape designer but learned to care for it by the seat of my pants. Now live on a square without my own back garden, but visiting gardens is one of my favourite hobbies, and interesting people and events from horticultural history still inspire some of the fiction I write.
“Threading the Labyrinth takes us backwards and forwards through the centuries, telling the story of an English manor house, the people who have loved and cared for it—and the mysterious garden that lies at its heart. In this lush and vibrant novel, Tiffani Angus deploys her considerable knowledge lightly, guiding us skilfully and hauntingly through the beautiful maze of her richly imagined story.” Una McCormack, author of Picard, The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway and many more.
Tiffani Angus holds a PhD in creative writing and spent over a decade teaching writing and publishing at universities in the US and UK with a special emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing. A Clarion 2009 graduate, she’s published fantasy, science fiction, horror, and even erotica short stories. Her 2020 debut novel, the historical fantasy Threading the Labyrinth, was a finalist for the British Fantasy Society and British Science Fiction Association Best Novel awards. She lives in Bury St Edmunds with her partner, where she is a freelance editor/proofreader/educator and is the co-director of the Underhill Academy for SFF Writers, which provides online creative writing courses and support services for SFF/H writers.
Website: www.tiffani-angus.com
Threads: doc_tiff
BlueSky: tiffaniangus.bsky.social
Threading the Labyrinth will be released in the Spring and you can order it here!
As always, follow the publishing process in our monthly newsletter.