Sweeping from the bustling beaches of contemporary Lima to local ceviche bars crammed with fishermen, music and folklore; from the rise and fall of the Inca Empire to a civil war that will devastate a nation, The Dust Never Settles is a love letter to Peru.

'A breath-taking writer of singular voice' Patrick Flanery, author of Absolution

'I have seen ghosts. They will not rest. The whispers of the past are all around...'

And running through it all, like the warm smell of orange blossom she remembers from her childhood, is Anais, who has returned to the country she loves after seven years abroad. Her beloved grandparents have passed away, and the time has come for her to sell the 'yellow house on the hill'.

As Anais prepares to say a final goodbye, she is haunted by memories. Dark truths of previous generations are hidden behind these crumbling walls - secrets that threaten to overwhelm her...

A hauntingly beautiful debut for fans of Isabel Allende and Kazuo Ishiguro

About the Author

Karina Lickorish Quinn is a bilingual, Peruvian-British writer raised in Lima, the English Midlands and New York. Karina has a BA from Oxford University, an MA from UCL, and a PhD from Queen Mary University of London. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Her work has appeared in The Offing, Asymptote and elsewhere, and her short fiction features in Un Nuevo Sol, the first major anthology of British-Latinx writers. In 2016, she was shortlisted for The White Review's short story prize. The Dust Never Settles is her first novel.

Reviews

'Once inside this decaying mansion, [Anais] and we are transfixed by a series of spectres from the Echeverrias' history. Lickorish Quinn's best sentences... flow through present participles that conjure sights and sounds... strange, and spectacular.' Sunday Telegraph

'A heady blend of Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in which stories and visions proliferate dizzyingly in all directions, this is an impressive first outing.' Daily Mail

'An absolute must-read. I was glued to its pages from the first to the last and am still struggling to believe that such an accomplished creation is Quinn's debut... A wonderfully immersive experience.' Literary Flits

'Lickorish Quinn's magnificent debut enchants from first page to last... A breath-taking writer of singular voice.' Patrick Flanery, author of Absolution

'A mesmerising feat of imagination and a masterful debut.' Paul Lynch, Booker Prize-winning author of Prophet Song

'An innovative and precisely imagined exploration of identity, family, ghosts, and the intersection between personal and national history. It swept me away.' Clare Fisher, author of All the Good Things

'The Dust Never Settles is ambitious, fascinating and endlessly inventive - a time-bending, kaleidoscopic fever dream in which the living coexist with the dead, and the past with present.' Luiza Sauma, author of Everything You Ever Wanted

'Always colourful, its magical realism beautifully realised, this novel brims with Peruvian folklore and history as Anais negotiates ghosts from the past and comes to terms with long-buried secrets.' Daily Mail

'A marvelous, vertiginous work that mercilessly conveys the post-colonial state.' Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Wild Laughter

'Karina Lickorish Quinn is the new face of magic realism... Like its title, The Dust Never Settles will stay floating inside the reader, impossible to forget or unsee.' Laia Jufresa, author of Umami

Book Information
ISBN 9780861543168
Author Karina Lickorish Quinn
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Oneworld Publications
Publisher Oneworld Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 28mm