The Book Eaters

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use.

Devon Fairweather walks through a convenience store looking for alcohol, books to eat, and eczema cream for her son, Cai Devonson. The clerk asks her for ID, which she doesn’t have, so she leaves with nothing. As she walks through the city, she focuses on making herself appear like a normal human woman. At home, she worries about, yet also fears, her starving son. An expected visitor arrives: a kind vicar who thinks he’s coming to speak with a depressed boy. Instead, Devon feeds the vicar to her son. She drinks to drown out the vicar’s screams.

At eight years old, Devon lives with her book-eater family at an isolated Yorkshire estate. One day, a human man arrives, the first she has ever encountered. Devon surprises him and learns that he’s a journalist named Amarinder “Mani” Patel. She’s fascinated by the idea that he can write because book eaters are incapable of writing. She leads him to her home to introduce him to her uncle Aike. Aike, normally jovial, is hostile toward the stranger and sends Devon away. She goes to their family library to find something to eat, settling on