Amphibian: 'Surreal and magical . . . haunting . . . mesmerising.' -Heat - Softcover

Wetherall, Tyler

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349017948 ISBN 13: 9780349017945

Publisher: Virago, 2025

Synopsis

'Has a queasily compelling power' The Times

'Haunting and visceral as a fairytale' Lilly Dancyger

'Brims with sex and violence and threat, and moves to a crescendo of strange and magical beauty' Rebecca Stott

'Gorgeously written ...resurrected for me the exquisite and ecstatic pains of girlhood' Hannah Lillith Assadi, author of Sonora and The Stars Are Not Yet Bells

'Exhilirating' Allison Behringer

Sissy is used to being on the outside. The new girl in her West Country school, she recently arrived with her troubled mother, prone to letting Sissy fend for herself.
But from the day Sissy fights a boy in front of Tegan, she's no longer alone. Bonded by violence, they grow so close they feel like one being: wrapped around each other in bed at sleepovers, sending photographs to men they meet online, and scaring each other with reports of the girls being snatched at night in their town.

Over the course of the school year, they find themselves on the threshold of girlhood, with threats gathering thick and fast around them. And as their make-believe worlds bleed into their daily lives, Sissy feels herself transforming into something strange and terrifying.

Amphibian is a tender, haunting coming-of-age debut about desire, precocity and the intensity of early friendships that have the power to upend our lives.

About this title

About the Author

Tyler Wetherall is an author, journalist, screenwriter and teacher who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her first book, the memoir No Way Home, about a childhood spent on the run with her fugitive father, was hailed as "Lucid, tender, exquisitely re-imagined and compulsively readable"; "wondrous and richly detailed" ; "a luminous memoir that nobody who reads it will soon forget". Her short fiction has appeared in the Gettysburg Review and Brooklyn Vol. 1, and she has written for Modern Love, the Guardian, Vice and Conde Nast Traveler.

From the Back Cover

'Gripping' -Financial Times

Sissy is used to being on the outside. The new girl in her West Country school, she has recently arrived with her troubled mother, who is prone to letting Sissy fend for herself. But from the day Sissy fights a boy in front of Tegan, she's no longer alone. The two grow intensely close over the course of the school year, as they find themselves on the threshold of girlhood.

But threats are gathering thick and fast around them, with reports of girls being snatched at night rocking their small town. As their make-believe worlds bleed into their daily lives, Sissy feels herself transforming into something strange and terrifying.

I couldn't put it down and feel haunted by every moment, every sentence' -Joanna Rakoff

'[A] moving debut' -Publishers Weekly
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Edition details

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349017948
• ISBN 13: 9780349017945
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320