Books hold significance for Simon Watson, the protagonist in Erika Swyler’s The Book of Speculation. As a young archivist dedicated to securing funding for a rare collection at the library where he works, he understands the value and import of the historical record. When an old leather-bound journal mysteriously arrives on the doorstep of his home his professional curiosity is piqued. What he doesn’t anticipate is the bewitching power the book will hold over him and the mystic secrets it protects.

Tension builds from the outset as the family home Simon has inherited is precariously close to falling into the sea. Storm surge and coastal erosion have undermined the foundations of the home and its impending collapse serves as a metaphor for the crisis in his personal life as well. His job at the library is under threat due to funding issues and his younger sister, Enola, is unstable and he worries for her failing mental health. Overshadowing these immediate concerns is the legacy of his parent’s tragic death, and the burden he took on as a teenager in becoming his sister’s guardian in the aftermath of this loss.

As Simon explores the significance of the journal – and the background of the antiquarian bookseller that sent it to him – he’s unnerved by the synchronicity of dates and events with his own family story. The journal is the private memoir of Hermelius Peabody, a carnival manager of a troupe of travelling entertainers in late eighteenth-century America. Life for these entertainers seems cursed and a disturbing threat casts a dark shadow over the lives of the generations that follow. A sense of foreboding warns Simon that fate may deal a tragic hand if he doesn’t confront the secrets of the past.

This is a work about dark secrets, obsession and tragic loss.

Natalie Platten