
The Indecipherables
A Novel
Anne Hellman(Author)
Bantam Books (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 19. January 2027
Book
Hardback
272 pages
979-8-217-29942-3 (ISBN)
Description
"Heady, creepy, paranoid, The Indecipherables is a delirious doubles-twist on the doppelgänger tale that will leave you questioning the identities of those closest to you. Maybe don't let them get too close."
—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie
A pair of identical twins reconnect on a road trip where they realize they’re being stalked—by themselves—in this unsettling, imaginative tribute to Hitchcock’s Psycho and Vertigo
Meet Ava and Brin, identical twins on a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, from San Francisco to Joshua Tree, in honor of their late mother. This is more than a pilgrimage—it’s a reunion after a year-long rift, after Ava almost died of a mysterious illness. From their first night on the road, the sisters encounter strangers who insist they’ve met them before—a waitress who is certain she served them a few days ago, a mechanic who shows Ava and Brin a picture of themselves driving a different car from earlier that day.
Ava and Brin realize that another pair of twins, seemingly identical to them in name and appearance, are stalking them. The cat-and-mouse game between the four identical women quickly devolves into something sinister and supernatural as the lines between them begin to blur. Doppelgängers, prophetic hallucinations, an unwavering fog—what do these shadow twins want? And what are Ava and Brin hiding?
The Indecipherables is a fever dream of a debut novel, a journey into the weird and uncanny, and an exploration of what horrors arise when we keep secrets from those we love—and from ourselves.
—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie
A pair of identical twins reconnect on a road trip where they realize they’re being stalked—by themselves—in this unsettling, imaginative tribute to Hitchcock’s Psycho and Vertigo
Meet Ava and Brin, identical twins on a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, from San Francisco to Joshua Tree, in honor of their late mother. This is more than a pilgrimage—it’s a reunion after a year-long rift, after Ava almost died of a mysterious illness. From their first night on the road, the sisters encounter strangers who insist they’ve met them before—a waitress who is certain she served them a few days ago, a mechanic who shows Ava and Brin a picture of themselves driving a different car from earlier that day.
Ava and Brin realize that another pair of twins, seemingly identical to them in name and appearance, are stalking them. The cat-and-mouse game between the four identical women quickly devolves into something sinister and supernatural as the lines between them begin to blur. Doppelgängers, prophetic hallucinations, an unwavering fog—what do these shadow twins want? And what are Ava and Brin hiding?
The Indecipherables is a fever dream of a debut novel, a journey into the weird and uncanny, and an exploration of what horrors arise when we keep secrets from those we love—and from ourselves.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Random House USA Inc
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-217-29942-3 (9798217299423)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Anne Hellman has contributed stories and essays to The Ladyfest Anthology, Catapult, Hyphen, and Tertulia, among others. She has been an associate editor of Fiction magazine and a recipient of the New York Times Foundation Fellowship for Creative Writing. In 2020, she founded the Grandmother Project website and archive. She is currently a writing mentor for Girls Write Now. Anne grew up in Northern California and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family. She is an identical twin.