The Cloisters

Author Katy Hays
Narrator Emily Tremaine
Publisher Transworld
Publish Date 1 November 2022
Run Time 10 hours and 16 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Crime and mystery fiction, Historical fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.

There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, each with their own secrets and desires, including the museum's curator, Patrick Roland, who is convinced that the history of Tarot holds the key to unlocking contemporary fortune telling.

Relieved to have left her troubled past behind and eager for the approval of her new colleagues, Ann is only too happy to indulge some of Patrick's more outlandish theories. But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she suddenly finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.

And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide whether she is truly able to defy the cards and shape her own future . . .

Bringing together the modern and the arcane, The Cloisters is a rich, thrillingly told tale of obsession and the ruthless pursuit of power.

© Katy Hays 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

Beguiling and atmospheric, an entrancing and gripping tale.

KATE MOSSE, author of Labyrinth

Elegant and atmospheric and suffused with brooding menace, The Cloisters transports us to the dark corridors of museum life, embroiling the reader in a twisting mystery, while also intelligently exploring the nature of fate versus freewill.

LUCY CLARKE, author of The Castaways

Glamour, power, seduction, ambition – The Cloisters has it all. I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel.

LOUISE O'NEILL, author of Idol

This is a modern, Gothic masterpiece. Successfully linking modern critical thinking with the divinity of the past, and human nature’s desire to believe that there is something else out there. 9/10

INDEPENDENT

The dark and enigmatic world of The Cloisters captured me from the off . . . a story of academic obsession, Renaissance magic and the ruthless pursuit of power. Captivating in every sense.

SARAH PEARSE, author of The Sanatorium

Sultry and sinister . . . Hays’ debut teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness . . . jaw-dropping.

SARAH PENNER, author of The Lost Apothecary

A sinister slow burn tale of obsession, power, secrets and academic rivalry . . . it’s been weeks since I finished the book and I’m still impressed by how much it affected me. ****

CULTUREFLY

‘Dark and compelling . . . richly atmospheric and full of historic detail, it draws the reader into its world of the archive and the occult. As its central mystery unfolds amid the stifling heat of a New York Summer it soon becomes clear that nobody in it is quite who they first appear.’

SALLY HINCHCLIFFE, author of Hare House

Like the moment before a thunderstorm on a summer afternoon, The Cloisters is sultry, lush, and trembling with menace.

JULIA MAY JONAS, author of Vladimir

In Hays’ hands, the subject of tarot is a fascinating one and the twists and turns come thick and fast. It’s full of menace.

DAILY EXPRESS

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