The Children of the Canal Builders

It is 1919 when Karin and Erik Nauckhoff leave the city for a vast, shuttered house in the forests of southern Sweden. Still fragile after illness, Karin believes the move will restore her – despite the quiet dread she feels as she wanders the manor’s austere rooms and echoing corridors.

Then one night the knocking comes. Three precise, hard blows, again and again – not at the door, but from within the walls.

It returns the following night, always in threes, always when Karin is at home. The maid hears it and, despite his strenuous denials, finally so does Erik. With the household on the brink of collapse, and Erik’s investigations growing increasingly severe, a young doctor is summoned. Under hypnosis, Karin begins to speak of a terrible being – and of an apocalyptic red city criss-crossed with ancient canals…

Widely considered Lars Jakobson’s masterpiece and one of the most original and influential modern Swedish novels, The Children of the Canal Builders is at once a terrifying, unforgettable ghost story and an extraordinary exploration of science and faith, of the unnamed and the unexplainable.

Praise for The Children of the Canal Builders:

"The Children of The Canal Builders forced me to rethink what a novel can do. A newly discovered cult favourite from Sweden, whose combination of horror, science fiction and experimental literature is completely groundbreaking. It is the kind of book that only comes along once in a decade; it feels as if language itself wrote it. It's a wonderfully unique, simply fabulous novel, and I love it."

— Olga Ravn