Episode 11.6: ‘And He Shall Appear’ by Kate van der Borgh
It’s already time for the finale of season eleven! This season has truly flown by and we’re hoping to send it off with another brilliant 2025 release.
Kate van der Borgh’s debut novel, ‘And He Shall Appear’, has been recommended for fans of ‘The Secret History’ and ‘Saltburn’ so hello, that’s us! It sounds like a deliciously dark and addictive read.
In the hallowed halls of Cambridge, a dangerous obsession takes hold…
When a young man arrives in Cambridge as a first-year student, he finds himself an outsider. There’s the punting and the politics, the wine and the waistcoats, all seemingly familiar to everyone but him. Then he falls under the spell of Bryn Cavendish.
A notorious party boy and skilled magician, Bryn is magnetic. To be in his circle is to revel in clouds of ecstasy, untouched by the rules. To be exiled is to haunt the peripheries of campus life like a ghost.
As the academic year intensifies and Bryn’s magic tricks become more sinister, one question lingers. Is Bryn’s charisma the source of his influence or does he wield a much darker and more dangerous power?
Though will it deliver on everything we want from a dark academia novel?
In this episode we discuss:
The power of secondary characters
The reinvention of the self, especially at university
Campus novels
You can listen to it here:
TEXTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘Oxford Blood’ by Rachel Davis-Featherstone
‘Black Chalk’ by Christopher J. Yates
OTHER MEDIA AND POP CULTURE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Saltburn (dir. Emerald Fennell)
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