Serpent's Tail presents M John Harrison's cult classic novel, now with an introduction by bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield.

'A gloriously intelligent, beautifully written and thoroughly maddening book' Independent

'A spare textual elegance and closure-denying restraint that impresses and fulfils' Iain Banks

On a hot May night, three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives. Decades later, none of the participants can remember what transpired; but their clouded memories bind them together. Unable to move on, Pam Stuyvesant is an epileptic haunted by strange sensual visions. Her husband Lucas believes that a dwarfish creature is stalking him, and invents histories to soothe Pam's fears. Self-styled Sorcerer Yaxley becomes obsessed with a terrifyingly transcendent reality. The narrator is seemingly the least effected participant in the ritual: he is haunted by the smell of roses, and his guilt as he attempts to help his friends escape the torment that has engulfed their lives.

Strange, dreamlike and moving, The Course of the Heart is an examination of the edges of humanity where we lie, hide, hurt and heal.