Contemporary Gothic Reading Group

John Rylands Research Institute and Library promotes world-leading research in the humanities and sciences using the unique special collections of The University of Manchester Library – National Research Library in the North.    Based in one of the finest neo-Gothic buildings in Europe and in the heart of Manchester, it is a dynamic community of world-leading researchers, curators, conservators and imaging specialists, all focused on our core mission to define the human experience over five millennia and up to the current day.Sign up to ouremail newsletterfor more information about our events.

John Rylands Research Institute and Library

Join us for this extra special edition of our reading group, where we will welcome Susan Barker to discuss her new novel, Old Soul.

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library

As part of Manchester City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries 2025, Manchester Metropolitan University presents a special edition of its Contemporary Gothic Reading Group.This event will take place at Manchester’s finest neo-Gothic library, The John Rylands. In this appropriately eerie setting, Susan Barker will be reading from her recently published novel, Old Soul, followed by a Q&amp;A and group discussion.It is free and open to everyone, but registration is required.Taking place in our new event space, this session will be accessible for all visitors. Full information about access is on the <a href="https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-manchester/access-guides/john-rylands-research-institute-and-library#e6c8451c-ed28-4c0b-9086-208ef4d27167" title="https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-manchester/access-guides/john-rylands-research-institute-and-library#e6c8451c-ed28-4c0b-9086-208ef4d27167" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Accessable</a> website.If you require further information about this event please email jrl.events@manchester.ac.uk

About Old Soul:When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake's best friend and Mariko's twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko - and then disappeared.Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko's revelations. It's a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died - in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways - and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.

About the author:SUSAN BARKER is the author of four books. Her third novel, The Incarnations, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book, a Kirkus Reviews’ Top Ten Book of the Year and shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. An excerpt from her fourth novel, Old Soul, won a Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction in 2020. Susan currently lives in Manchester, where she is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

"This is the kind of story you tell around a campfire as the lights of civilization begin flicker out around you; a global, intelligent, and ambitious archetypal nightmare" - KRISTEN ROUPENIAN, author of Cat Person"Susan Barker’s Old Soul beguiles, terrifies, and utterly seduces you as swiftly and slyly as the mysterious woman at its center. It’s at once a thriller, a postmodern mystery, and an existential horror tale, but perhaps most deeply it speaks to our current moment: the drift and terrors of loneliness, the risks of intimacy and a piercing nostalgia that never lets us go" - MEGAN ABBOTT, author of El Dorado Drive

This event will be hosted by the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/manchestergothic.mmu.ac.uk/__;!!PDiH4ENfjr2_Jw!ExlubU-ycBpnmtmDrfE6z6SQZBxU323iBnsjeQkei-GE7QK5fd2FaJ3aYw_aRZzv2i0DwMWzRmtbpnuAc47rxI0EYIsr-pRypoJEri8svbNQohg$" title="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/manchestergothic.mmu.ac.uk/__;!!PDiH4ENfjr2_Jw!ExlubU-ycBpnmtmDrfE6z6SQZBxU323iBnsjeQkei-GE7QK5fd2FaJ3aYw_aRZzv2i0DwMWzRmtbpnuAc47rxI0EYIsr-pRypoJEri8svbNQohg$" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://manchestergothic.mmu.ac.uk/ [manchestergothic.mmu.ac.uk]</a> The Contemporary Gothic reading group runs every year between May and July and usually offers a combination of in-person and online events, including author talks. For more information, please visit our Gothic Centre website or find us on Facebook: <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.facebook.com/groups/1589997731237020/__;!!PDiH4ENfjr2_Jw!ExlubU-ycBpnmtmDrfE6z6SQZBxU323iBnsjeQkei-GE7QK5fd2FaJ3aYw_aRZzv2i0DwMWzRmtbpnuAc47rxI0EYIsr-pRypoJEri8s2oKl51g$" title="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.facebook.com/groups/1589997731237020/__;!!PDiH4ENfjr2_Jw!ExlubU-ycBpnmtmDrfE6z6SQZBxU323iBnsjeQkei-GE7QK5fd2FaJ3aYw_aRZzv2i0DwMWzRmtbpnuAc47rxI0EYIsr-pRypoJEri8s2oKl51g$" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.facebook.com/groups/1589997731237020/ [facebook.com]</a>

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Contemporary Gothic Reading Group

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