Hazardous Spirits: Anbara Salam takes us back to 1920s Edinburgh

Anbara Salam, the hugely talented Scottish-Palestinian author of Things Bright and Beautiful and Belladonna, contributor to This Arab Is Queer is back with a new novel and it's gothic, and ghostly, and set in Edinburgh!

Join us for an Edinburgh launch of Hazardous Spirits!

Edinburgh, 1923. Evelyn Hazard is a young woman living a comfortable and unremarkable middle-class life. One day, her quiet existence is shattered when her steady, reliable husband Robert makes a startling announcement: he can communicate with the dead. As the couple are pulled into the spiritualist movement that emerged following the mass deaths caused by the First World War and the Spanish Flu, Evelyn's life becomes increasingly unsettled as dark secrets from her past threaten to surface. Faced with the prospect of losing all that is dear to her, Evelyn finds herself asking: is the man she loves a fraud, a madman or - most frighteningly - is he telling the truth?

A gothic literary mystery, written in sparkling prose, Hazardous Spirits evokes the spirit of 1920s Edinburgh, in all its bohemian vibrancy- it is a bold new direction for Anbara and the perfect book to curl up with on a dark autumnal evening!

Get your ghost on with our gothic feminist double bill! TWO spine-chilling novels on one night: 7pm we have Anbara Salam with Hazardous Spirits, 8pm drinks & signing, 8.30 Aliya Chaudhry with Every Version Ends in Death.

‘A darkly sumptuous love letter to the ghosts of Edinburgh past, guaranteed to give you goosebumps. Under its veneer of eccentric frivolity and acerbic wit, Hazardous Spirits is a heartbreaking exploration of collective grief and personal trauma. An exquisitely written work of Caledonian gothic’ - Francine Toon, author of PINE

‘Equal parts lush Gothic mystery and delicately-wrought 1920s domestic melodrama, Hazardous Spirits is a riveting exploration of the unknowable - whether it's ghosts, spirits, or the people we love most’ - Tara Isabella Burton, author of SOCIAL CREATURE

Our writer: Anbara Salam is half-Palestinian and half-Scottish, and grew up in London. She has a doctorate in Theology and now lives in Oxford. She is the author of THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL, BELLADONNA, and her forthcoming novel, HAZARDOUS SPIRITS

Our host: Tomiwa Folorunso is a Writer, Cultural Producer and Film Programmer based between Brussels and Edinburgh. She has a special interest in contemporary culture, lifestyle, social politics, and diasporas, across film and literature. Tomiwa writes a substack dear lexi. You can find her on Instagram @tomiwafolorunso