Prepare yourself. From a wonderful writer who continues to astonish, now comes 'a chilling ghost story'. Sarah Waters (1966, Wales) was chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2003 and has won numerous awards since: Betty Trask Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and twice shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. In June her long-awaited latest novel The Little Stranger will be published.

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its owners - mother, son and daughter - are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayres's haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

Waters' previous novels Fingersmith and The Night Watch were shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange prizes. Tipping the Velvet, Affinity and Fingersmith have all been adapted for television.

Sarah Waters is one of the best storytellers alive today...sooner or later she's going to be given the Booker - Matt Thorne, Independent on Sunday

Sarah Waters website