No Season but the Summer

‘Matilda Leyser’s novel takes the eternal polarities — love and hate, life and death, summer and winter, possibility and impossibility — and brings them crashing together in a tumultuous story of gods living alongside humanity, mother-daughter love and loss, and a glimmer of hope despite it all. In No Season but the Summer, our world is still dying, but it is putting up a hell of a fight as it does so, reminding us that we can fight too, and that fighting for our lives might start with listening to the earth.’

-- Stella Duffy, author of Theodora

‘What a wonderful writer. Matilda Leyser’s work is precise, poetic, hard-edged, rhythmical. It seethes with life, and feels both ancient and brand new.’

-- David Almond, author of Skellig

‘Matilda Leyser’s mythic characters are gods and humans all at once; her tale of love and destruction is fuelled by ancient power and rich with contemporary resonance. And what beautiful writing! This striking novel conjures our deepest emotions — our feelings for each other, for the imperilled planet that is our only home. No Season but the Summer is a memorable debut.’

-- Erica Wagner, author of Mary and Mr Eliot

‘This novel did all of the things that I wish mythic reimaginings would do ... This one is heartily recommended. It’s masterfully constructed, moving, and strange in all the right ways. It’s carefully and poetically written ... There are very few writers who have succeeded in bringing an ancient myth into the contemporary world with such profound resonance for the issues which concern us. Matilda Leyser is one of them, and I’m very much looking forward to what she might do next.’

-- Sharon Blackie from The Art of Enchantment

‘As you climb to earth with Persephone, you know you are in good hands. Leyser has an uncanny ability to make the mythic intimate and the timeless timely. She takes an ancient tale of goddesses and furious wrongs and fashions it into a passionate contemporary story that will resonate with mothers and daughters everywhere. Oh — and she writes like an angel. Her prose at once precise and lush, you can taste and smell and touch every bit of her thrilling, sensuous world. No Season but the Summer is an everyday epic with an invitation to ride.’

-- Nicky Singer, author of The Survival Game

‘Artfully transporting classic myth to the present, this is the tale of Persephone, of the stories behind why our seasons change, and “how climate change is stretching and breaking the rules that have long kept the natural world in rhythm”.’

* The Bookseller *

‘Deeply elegant and immensely compelling ... the writing is exceptional — every word feels chosen with care, every sentence balanced and the imagery, metaphors of ancient Greece renewed in the modern world … are breathtaking.  I am genuinely astonished that this is a first novel. It feels like the work of someone who’s been doing it for decades and has found the freedom to explore the nature of our world along with the mastery of language that such depth of exploration demands. It’s utterly beautiful: a jewel of a book. Totally recommended.’

-- Manda Scott

‘No Season But The Summer is strongest when it uses the conflict between immortality and decay to make us think about the climate crisis.’

-- Lily Herd * TLS *

‘A breathtaking debut novel.’

-- Reader review

‘This is the retelling I've been looking for — it is excellent.’

-- Reader review

‘[A] thought provoking and moving read, which brought the stories of the ancient Greek Gods into the modern day.’

-- Reader re