The rain falls ceaselessly on the town of Bedford as it braces itself for the annual floods that heralds the end of winter. But this year the sense of misery is more pervasive than ever. The Clott paper mill, the town's biggest employer, has shut and the town, already polluted by the chemicals the mill used, faces a desperate future. Liz and Susan Marley are two sisters who are poles apart. Susan, beautiful and disturbed, abused by her father and, even after he died, rejected by a mother unable to confront her own guilt, lives in squalor in the wrong part of town. She wanders silently around the town, inappropriately dressed, never speaking and letting herself be picked up by men in bars. She is the town witch, the town's guilty secret. Liz is years younger than Susan, in her last year of high school and worried about her looks, her weight, how popular she is, whether she will ever get out of Bedford and above all why her sister hates her so much. She dreams about Susan, vividly, horrifically, dreams in which Susan tries to kill her, dreams from which she awakes strangely bruised. But it turns out that everyone in Bedford dreams about Susan Marley, strange, disturbing dreams of destruction and loathing. And when Susan Marley commits suicide, betrayed by life one final petty time, her death unleashes a hail of destruction on the town of Bedford that is more terrifying than any dream.

'Akin to the more ambitious work of Stephen King...this effective debut promises great things to come.' -- Publishers Weekly '[A] distinct and juicy flavor all its own. THE KEEPER begins what should be a very fruitful career.' -- Peter Straub, New York Times bestselling author of IN THE NIGHT ROOM '[A] brilliant debut, heralding the arrival of a major talent.' -- Tim Lebbon, author of DUSK and BERSERK 'A dark and bracingly bleak tale of supernatural terror.' -- Ramsey Campbell, author of SECRET STORY 'THE KEEPER kept me up, late into the night...I'm hoping for a whole shelf of novels by Langan.' -- Kelly Link, author of MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS 'Deft and disturbing... twists expectations into surreal surprises... hypnotic reading - an assured and impressive debut.' -- Douglas E. Winter 'An astonishing first novel...chilling, haunting, and so smartly written that the pages fly by like the wind.' -- Ray Garton, author of THE LOVELIEST DEAD '...The new author on the block is definitely a keeper...' -- Edward Bryant, Locus Magazine '[THE KEEPER] will scare the heck out of you.' -- OK! Magazine 'THE KEEPER's a smart, brand-new take on the haunted house story. In vivid, compelling prose, which runs from the wry to the lyrical, Langan here gives us nothing less than a sharply realized portrait of an American town in the death-throes of decay. Susan Marley is a subtle juggernaut of a character --and she inhabits the mind once you've finished like a dark, lingering smoke.' -- Jack Ketchum, author of OFFSPRING 'Sarah Langan is scary, very scary... She mixes in bits of Stephen King, Lovecraft, Poe and Peter Straub, then pours out a thoroughly original and nasty concoction all her own... For one truly creepy read, latch on to The Keeper. Your dreams will never be the same.' -- CLARION LEDGER

Sarah grew up on Long Island and went to college in Waterville, Maine, where she published her first story, Sick People . She got her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to writing novels, she is also pursuing her Master's in Environmental Health Science/Toxicology at New York University.