Old Soul

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The woman never goes by the same name.
She never stays in the same place too long.
She never ages. She never dies.
But those around her do.

When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.

Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared.

Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.

And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?

'A mesmerising story, brilliantly told' IAN McGUIRE

'Utterly addictive and completely immersive ...The most propulsive thing I have read all year' LARA WILLIAMS, author of Supper Club

'I was completely swept up ... It continues to haunt and unsettle me, in the very best of ways' EMILY MIDORIKAWA, author of Out of the Shadows

'Like nothing else I've ever read ... The kind of story you tell around a campfire as the lights of civilization begin to flicker out around you; a global, intelligent and ambitious archetypal nightmare' KRISTEN ROUPENIAN, author of Cat Person

© Susan Barker 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

Barker's finely written novel is super-sophisticated horror, as indebted to literary fiction... as it is to gothic gore. If the Booker prize judges are open to genre titles, it wouldn't be too surprising to see it on their longlist
The Times
Sinister, mysterious and gorgeously realised, Old Soul is as good on the horror and subliminity of love (and its shadow, loneliness) as it is on nerve-flaying visions of the vicious supernatural
KALIANE BRADLEY, author of The Ministry of Time
Old Soul is a mesmerising story brilliantly told. The way the novel slowly reveals its dark secrets as it moves with ease and elegance across continents and eras is hugely impressive.
IAN McGUIRE, author of The North Water
Old Soul is like nothing else I've ever read ...More than anything, though, I loved how it made me feel: like I'd woken up after a long sleep to see for the first time how terrifying and strange the contemporary world has become. This the kind of story you tell around a campfire as the lights of civilization begin flicker out around you; a global, intelligent, and ambitious archetypal nightmare
KRISTEN ROUPENIAN, author of Cat Person
Sinister, unnerving and nightmarish. Old Soul will sneak into your dreams and haunt you
CLAIRE FULLER, author of Unsettled Ground
Old Soul is an utterly addictive and completely immersive novel. Beautifully written and filled with engrossing characters and unforgettable landscapes, it is the most propulsive thing I have read all year
LARA WILLIAMS, author of Supper Club
Beautifully written and at times terrifying ... I was completely swept up in the atmosphere of the book and the plot continues to haunt and unsettle me, in the very best of ways
EMILY MIDORIKAWA, author of Out of the Shadows
Old Soul enticed me in with a chance meeting between mysterious strangers with one thing in common: a nameless horror that haunts them. The novel that follows is expansive, twisty, gripping and intelligent; I loved it
JENN ASHWORTH, author of Ghosted
Susan Barker is a tremendous writer and Old Soul snags the reader in its claw and mesmerises from page one. I often wondered if I was devouring the story or vice versa, I was so engrossed. It is not an option to put this book down
MONIQUE ROFFEY, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch
Old Soul is an extraordinary achievement. A brutal interrogation of art, connection, the meaning of and impulse toward life itself. I couldn’t put it down
BETH UNDERDOWN, author of The Witchfinder's Sister

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