The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter

The city is crumbling. . . .

Clouds over Nowy Solum have not parted in a hundred years. Gods have deserted their temples. In the last days of a dying city, the decadent chatelaine chooses a forbidden lover, separating twin outcasts and setting them on independent trajectories that might finally bring down the palace. Then, screaming from the skies, a lone god reappears and a limbless prophet is carried through South Gate, into Nowy Solum, with a message for all: beyond the city, something ancient and monumental has come awake.

"Beautifully written and morally ambivalent, this complex tale will appeal to readers of Gene Wolfe and China Miéville."
– Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Hayward’s tale launches head-first into the puzzling dark fantasy world that he has so intrinsically created here. Like a Salvador Dalí masterpiece transposed into words."
– Chris Hall, DLS Reviews