Influx signs 'uncanny' story of grief and obsession

Influx Press has signed a new book by writer and filmmaker Adam Scovell, due for release in February 2019.

Mothlight concerns Phyllis Ewans, a prominent researcher in Lepidoptera and a keen walker, who has recently died in old age. Thomas, a much younger fellow researcher of moths, first met Phyllis when he was a child. He became her carer and companion, having rekindled her acquaintance in later life. Increasingly possessed by thoughts that he somehow actually is Phyllis Ewans, and unable to rid himself of the feeling that she is haunting him, Thomas must discover her secrets through her many possessions and photographs, before he is lost permanently in a labyrinth of memories long past.

"Steeped in dusty melancholy and analogue shadows, Mothlight is an uncanny story of grief, memory and the price of obsession", said the publisher.

Influx editor Kit Caless signed world rights directly from the author. He said: “We’re very excited to have signed Mothlight and Adam Scovell to Influx Press. We’ve been big fans of his film and non-fiction work for a number of years now, and we’re delighted to be publishing his debut novel.”

Scovell said: “I’m incredibly happy about Mothlight being taken by Influx. It’s such a strange little book that I can’t think of anyone better to spread its weirdness more effectively. I’ve been a huge admirer of the work that they do for a long while and feel very privileged to be alongside the uniquely brilliant writers that they support and publish."

Scovell's previous non-fiction work includes Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange (Columbia University Press), and he has worked with Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood, Iain Sinclair and BAFTA-nominated director, Paul Wright.

MacFarlane said: "Adam Scovell is one of the most interesting and original young British writers about landscape, culture and people that I know; consistently adventurous in his explorations of place as a novelist, essayist, critic and filmmaker."