Deserted by her mother as a baby, Emily lives with her father in Mexico City, working in the local orphanage. When a mysterious cousin, Santi, appears on the doorstep, he brings with him family secrets, and soon Emily finds desire and temptation have overturned her straightforward life forever. The Poison That Fascinates is an alluring fable forged in astonishing, sensuous prose. Jennifer Clement conjures a world heavy with the weight of Mexican superstition, mythology and faith, where saintliness and mortal sin sit side by side. The author's second novel, out of print for a little while now, offers another glimpse of Jennifer Clement's continuing growth as a literary novelist.

"Might have been produced by Angela Carter . . . Weird, unpredictable and magic realist." — The Independent

"An astonishing novel, every line alive, leading as if effortlessly to a shocking climax. A work of power and originality." —Alan Sillitoe

"What a marvellous writer Clement is. She contains all this power in a prose that is simple and simply beguiling." — The Scotsman

"Highly original. Her prose is precise as a scalpel, lyrical, and the story is unputdownable." —Ruth Padel, The G uardian