Melmoth by Sarah Perry

Men have known of her for centuries.  Her existence is whispered about in cities and small villages worldwide.  She is Melmoth, the woman who witnesses sin.  Cursed by her own sin, she must forever wander the Earth, witnessing the sins of others, begging them to accompany her on her endless travels.  Has someone betrayed a neighbor during a war?  Melmoth is there.  Made a choice that ended in someone's death or destruction?  You can expect a visit from Melmoth.

Now, she is in Prague, witnessing the sins various people believed they have hidden forever.  There is Hoffman, who has a story of sin from Cairo.  Karel Prazan remembers his own earlier sins before he became a famous inventor and husband to his lovely wife.  Helen Franklin has lived punishing herself for twenty years for a sin in her early youth.  Then there is Prazan's wife, the elderly woman Helen rents a room from and the young health worker who suddenly appears in the Prazan's life.  All are due visits from Melmoth.

The main characters all meet in the Prague central library.  As their friendships progress, Hoffman shares the story of Melmoth with Prazan and he with Franklin.  Soon, each is aware of a shadowy figure, someone always just out of sight but always, inexorably there.  Watching.  Waiting.  To what end?

Sarah Perry burst onto the literary fiction stage with the release of her second novel, The Essex Serpent.  Fans of that novel will also enjoy Melmoth as it has the same genre of writing; that of a Victorian horror or suspense novel.  Melmoth creeps along the perimeter of the novel, only glimpsed but always present.  The reader will want to read on to discover the sins of the various characters and the resolution of this story.  This novel is recommended for literary fiction and horror readers.