Paradise
Ben Tufnell
'An unsettling novel of juxtapositions and surprises, Paradise moves between city and forest, bringing both to teeming, violent life. Tufnell creates landscapes that work upon us on the deepest level.'
– Aliya Whiteley, author of The Beauty and Skyward Inn
‘A Kafkaesque maelstrom of a novel, with folk horror lurking at the edges. Tufnell remains a wonderfully strange writer.’
– Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures
‘Absolutely engrossing, a deeply strange neo-noir fit for the anthropocene.’
– Seán Padraic Birnie, author of I Would Haunt You If I Could
‘A powerful novel of psychogeography set between two landscapes, urban and rural, in a world palpably on the brink of collapse. Febrile with paranoia and alienation, Paradise confronts the crucial, intimate matter of our time: how ‘to be’ at the end of all things.’
– Charlotte Tierney, author of The Cat Bride
A world on the brink of collapse. Dense woods, mountains, a standing stone, a barrow, and a very old house. But if you’ve only ever known concrete and glass, how do you live in a place like this?
Recruited by a mysterious organisation, Nash thinks things are finally going his way. But when a job goes badly wrong, he is taken to an isolated location to await a decision on his fate.
Paradise is a crumbling cottage deep in a forest; Nash is free to leave the house but must not leave the woods. It is winter, and this wild and remote place is unknowable and terrifying. He attempts to map his surroundings to find a way out, but they resist him, the land seemingly shifting and changing. Moreover, he begins to suspect that his employers’ intentions may be much darker than anticipated.
Forming an unlikely friendship, Nash finally begins to understand the consoling power of the place that has become his home. Brigid is sure of herself and at home in the natural world, while he is urban, lost. But she longs for his world, and he longs for hers.
Now the wheel of the year is turning. As winter gives way to spring Nash’s fate has been decided, and they are coming to deliver their verdict…
Paradise is the brilliant new novel from Ben Tufnell, an uncategorizable eco-thriller combining elements of noir, folk horror and nature writing, addressing the most urgent of contemporary issues.
Praise for Paradise
'Paradise is a compelling fusion of literary noir with eco-fable – page turning and profound, I loved this book, Tufnell is a tour de force of imaginative power.'
– James Miller, author of Lost Boys
‘This is a sure footed and enjoyable British action thriller with an interesting eco/folk edge. The natural world is evoked with real feeling and an, at times, visceral quality which really brings out the vastness of the dark, the smells of wet foliage and also of the majesty of an English wood.There is a quick pace, and a deftness to the action and I flew through my read of the novel. Fans of The Matrix will find much to enjoy here, as well as readers coming from novels like Starveacre and Lost in the Garden. This is a quick, and well handled novel ideal for a weekend read.’
– Waterstones Bookseller Review
Praise for The North Shore
‘Exposes the shallowness of our human grasp on the lands we call home, digging into networks of roots and strata of geohistory to imagine what has preceded us — and what might follow in our wake.’
– TLS
‘Weird, astonishing.’
– Amy Twigg, author of Spoilt Creatures
'Unnerving beauty.'
– Naomi Booth, author of Sealed
‘That rare beast, a work of folk horror that holds its own with the classics whilst exhibiting genuine points of difference.’
– Nina Allan, author of A Granite Silence
'A haunting evocation of place.’
– Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies
About the Author
Ben Tufnell is a writer and curator based in London. His short stories have been published by Conjunctions, Litro, Lunate, Nightjar Press, Storgy and Structo, amongst others, and included in Best British Short Stories 2024 (Salt Publishing).
He has been longlisted or highly commended for the BBC National Short Story Award, the Sean O’Faolain Short Story Prize, The White Review Short Story Prize and the Disquiet Fiction Prize, and shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award for short fiction.
His debut novel, The North Shore, was published by Fleet (Little, Brown) in 2023.
Paperback ISBN: 9781914391583
Ebook ISBN: 9781914391590
Publication date: March 2026
Formats: Paperback / eBook