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July’s literary pick is the debut novel of Poppy Adams (well, it was her debut back in 2008): The Behaviour of Moths.

This dark tale is one of a dysfunctional family at its very best. The father, a lepidopterist, lives for his work. The mother fills the resulting void with alcohol. The two sisters go their separate ways: Vivi, the younger, heading off for adventures in London and Ginny staying at her father’s side in their crumbling Gothic mansion to learn about the behaviour of moths.

Fifty years on, Vivi returns to the ruins of their family home to find her hermit of a sister selling off the family heirlooms, creeping around the house with virtually no contact with the outside world. Her sister’s homecoming forces Ginny to look back at the preceding years, recounting her increasingly disquieting anecdotes in a unique, and unsettling voice. As you venture deeper and deeper into the novel with her you just know something is really wrong and you almost dread coming to the end in case the unthinkable is revealed.

I won’t post any spoilers. How can a book be intriguingly funny yet deliciously disturbing at the same time? You best read it yourself to find out.