Hexes of the Deadwood Forest
Agnieszka Szpila
Translated by Scotia Gilroy
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07 May 2026Imprint: Footnote Press
Synopsis
'You're holding a torpedo of a book in your hand. Take a seat and get comfortable. This novel's energy, humour and rebel spirit will awaken your mind and change your way of thinking' Olga Tokarczuk
Anna Frenza hates the tyrannical tree huggers and idiotic eco-warriors, after all, she's CEO of Poland's biggest oil company. But when she finds herself sleepwalking into the woods and making love to a tree, all caught on camera, her career comes to an abrupt end. Her mind splinters and, whether by delusion or possession of spirit, she finds herself in a medieval province ruled by the Catholic Church.
Deep in the past, she falls in with Mathilde Spalt, leader of the Earthen Ones - a congregation of women who live in the woods and reject all patriarchy. Instead engaging in the ecstatic, sensuous worship of Mother Earth. Anna learns to love the forest she had once dismissed . . . until the Church decides to fell the trees and all the women within it.
Bold and entirely unexpected, Hexes of the Deadwood Forest is a collective rebellion, the death knell to the elevation of the erect. Take hold of your seat; patriarchy is coming to an end.
'A work of funny, shocking and deeply affecting feminist satire. Tokarczuk's own Drive Your Plow is the most obvious comparison, but Hexes is a genuinely, fiercely original work' Foyles, Top Ten Reads for May
Anna Frenza hates the tyrannical tree huggers and idiotic eco-warriors, after all, she's CEO of Poland's biggest oil company. But when she finds herself sleepwalking into the woods and making love to a tree, all caught on camera, her career comes to an abrupt end. Her mind splinters and, whether by delusion or possession of spirit, she finds herself in a medieval province ruled by the Catholic Church.
Deep in the past, she falls in with Mathilde Spalt, leader of the Earthen Ones - a congregation of women who live in the woods and reject all patriarchy. Instead engaging in the ecstatic, sensuous worship of Mother Earth. Anna learns to love the forest she had once dismissed . . . until the Church decides to fell the trees and all the women within it.
Bold and entirely unexpected, Hexes of the Deadwood Forest is a collective rebellion, the death knell to the elevation of the erect. Take hold of your seat; patriarchy is coming to an end.
'A work of funny, shocking and deeply affecting feminist satire. Tokarczuk's own Drive Your Plow is the most obvious comparison, but Hexes is a genuinely, fiercely original work' Foyles, Top Ten Reads for May
Details
07 May 2026
9781804443910Imprint: Footnote Press
Reviews
The kind of debut that grabs you by the collar and doesn't apologise, it's bold, surreal, feminist and ferociously funny - exactly the kind of book that rewires your brain
A fever dream of feminist fire, we've never read a book quite like it
You're holding a torpedo of a book in your hand. Take a seat and get comfortable. This novel's energy, humor, and rebel spirit will awaken your mind and change your way of thinking
A riproaring novel that combines ecological fury, female estrangement, and anti-institutional bite into a work of funny, shocking and deeply affecting feminist satire . . . Hexes is a genuinely, fiercely original work
