Polly Ho-Yen lives in Bristol with her husband. She used to be a primary-school teacher and now writes fiction for children (9-12 year olds) with a sci-fi or fantasy twist. She has been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award. This is her first adult novel.
'Dark Lullaby is hard-hitting, mournful and deeply affecting, reading like the offspring of Never Let Me Go and 1984, and it addresses universal fears about early parenthood without providing easy answers. I raced through it and when I'd finished, it made me hug my own children tight.' Tim Major, author of Hope Island. With fabulous world-building and a plot so tight you could bounce a quarter off of it, Dark Lullaby is a Handmaid's Tale for the modern world, about the ways our human need for love can serve as both society's salvation, and its undoing. Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors 'This gripping thriller has everything: beautiful writing, shedloads of tension, family drama. It made me grateful for my fragile freedoms.' Emily Koch, author of If I Die Before I Wake Dark Lullaby is a gripping story of love and desperation, of intimate and social structures, of sisterhood and motherhood that rings true as a bell. I devoured it. Deirdre Sullivan, author of Perfectly Preventable Deaths Polly Ho-Yen masterfully balances eerie, dream-like prose with a distressingly realistic portrayal of a world where reproductive right has become reproductive responsibility. To be a parent is to live with your heart outside your body and, through smart world-building, memorable characters and sharp insight, Dark Lullaby perfectly encapsulates the power and terror of that love. Dave Rudden, author of The Wintertime Paradox Praise for the author: This matches a dystopian plot with a hugely engaging narrator... An unusual and very impressive debut. Fiona Noble, The Bookseller Haunting and compelling, with characters you really care for Vanessa Lewis, The Bookseller