Seb’s beautiful, beloved wife Leda has been killed by a swan. Sorting through her belongings after her death, he comes across a packet of unopened letters from Olaf, a man whom Leda had never mentioned. Floundering professionally and sunk by grief, he decides to travel to Leda’s home village in Latvia to patch her story together. But with each new person that he turns to for answers, Seb is met instead by more questions about Leda, her past and their life together.

A darkly funny, seductive novel that confronts the black undercurrent of possession inherent in love, Strange Heart Beating is a breathtaking debut from an author whose vision is both acerbic and tender.