In the aftermath of a devastating epidemic, bodies marked with eerie patterns called withers become symbols of a painful past—a past many want to forget. Riatta, one of the marked, finds herself cast out, a survivor of controversial surgeries that saved her life but cost her everything else. Seeking refuge, she recovers in the home of a surgeon who once saved her. But when she learns his wife is pregnant, a shadow falls over this fragile sanctuary. Ruthless organ traffickers roam the streets, and Riatta is drawn into a desperate fight to protect the unborn child and her friends. With what Lisa Gornick calls “the creeping terror of a Grimm’s fairy tale,” The Withers is a haunting exploration of obsession, loss, loyalty, and the fragile threads of memory. In a world plagued by betrayal, can trust ever be reclaimed?
Praise for The Withers
“With a poet’s delicacy and the creeping terror of a Grimm’s fairy tale, Lee Upton has spun a strange and original story that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and your heart then swell with her ode to the love curled inside grief. Anyone who has ever loved a child, an animal, or a friend will resonate with her portrait of the power and beauty of these enduring bonds.”
—Lisa Gornick, author of Ana Turns
“A harrowing tale of love and shocking betrayal, Lee Upton’s The Withers tests the limits of the human heart. It’s a page turner where the stakes couldn’t be higher. A fabulous read.”
—Charles Holdefer, author of Don’t Look at Me
“Lee Upton’s The Withers is a dark dystopian thriller set in the world of medical authority, organ replacement, and genetic engineering. Riatta, a survivor of a plague of sudden death from organ failure, confronts a world of secrets and schemes in which her friends are threatened and she herself is an unwitting pawn. Fast-paced and relentless, Upton has written a story set in a near-future that reflects on our own world. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Lawrence Coates, author of The Goodbye House
“The Withers by the singular Lee Upton is everything all at once: a thrilling plot, characters you know well enough to touch, and the most luscious prose to guide the reader through. Devastatingly urgent, it investigates dealing with unfathomable loss, and the psychic and physical meanings of survival. The Withers is surprising, spectacular, and utterly unforgettable.”
—Jennifer Gilmore, author of The Mothers and If Only
“Lee Upton’s The Withers is a timely tale of a world on the verge—the aftermath of a mysterious epidemic, ‘The Collapse,’ filled with vanguard treatments and survivors who are not only physically marked but targeted for what they have lost (and been given). ‘Disease is the great divider,’ one character sagely suggests, and Upton, with her careful and nuanced lens, teases out beauty and hope in an unsettling (and eerily familiar) world.”
—Jen Michalski, author of All This Can Be True
