A01=Emily McBride
Author_Emily McBride
Category=FBA
Category=FK
Category=FNM
Category=FXM
Changeling
changeling myth fiction
dark fairy folklore
eerie family drama
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_myths-legends
eq_nobargain
fairies and folklore fiction
feminist literary fiction
Folklore
forthcoming
Literary Fiction
literary horror novel
maternal anxiety fiction
modern folklore novel
motherhood and madness
myth-inspired literary novel
myths and motherhood
New Motherhood
postpartum horror
Postpartum Psychosis
postpartum psychosis fiction
psychological literary fiction
uncanny baby story
unsettling motherhood novel
women's psychological fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781805338062
- Dimensions: 135 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 27 Aug 2026
- Publisher: Pushkin Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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There is a changeling in this story, but who is it?
Madeleine, a promising grad student, is newly married when her baby daughter Maud arrives-perfect despite a traumatic labour. But just a few nights into their life, something seems amiss. Maud never stops crying. Her hunger is insatiable. Her eyes glint with a kind of ancient mischief. Could Maud be a fairy child, swapped when she wasn't paying attention? Is her real daughter elsewhere, dancing in the half-light with sprites and foxes?
As her husband Tom continues with his day-to-day, working toward a promotion, Madeleine slips further into violent visions. Panicked at her lack of maternal love and shut out from her old life, she turns to what she knows best, literature, for answers. The old myths and stories end in sorrow and bloodshed, after all the fairies don't just kidnap babies-they're partial to young women too. Is Maud the changeling, or is it Madeleine? And if she's been swapped, how will she find her way back?
Queen Mab is a riveting portrait of madness, motherhood, the myths that haunt us and the families who keep us tethered.
Emily McBride is a Canadian-born editor, writer and translator living in Barcelona. Her work has been published in The Nation, The Rumpus and The Stinging Fly. Queen Mab is her debut novel.
