A fearsomely dark, incantatory new dystopia set in a post-apocalyptic convent from the author of viral sensation Tender is the Flesh

'Barbaric, brutal and utterly beautiful. The Unworthy is a searing haunt of a novel that I will never forget' LUCY ROSE, AUTHOR OF THE LAMB

In the House of the Sacred Sisterhood, the unworthy live in fear of the Superior Sister's whip. Seething with resentment, they plot against each other and await who will ascend to the level of the Enlightened - and who will suffer the next exemplary punishment.

Risking her life, one of the unworthy keeps a diary in secret. Slowly, memories surface from a time before the world collapsed, before the Sacred Sisterhood became the only refuge.

Then Lucía arrives. She, too, is unworthy - but she is different. And her presence brings a single spark of hope to a world of darkness.

"Brilliant, chilling... The horror is made visceral by Bazterrica's feverish, mythic prose" - New York Times

"Bazterrica's world-building is perversely and unsettlingly entrancing" - LA Review of Books

"A novel that revels in revulsion. It's provocative, intelligent, and deeply affecting... Just make sure to carve out an afternoon to read it - you won't want to look away" - Harvard Crimson