The latest release from the excellent Watermark Press is another humdinger, this time in the form of At Dawn, Two Nightingales, the new novel from author and Swansea University academic Alan Bilton. Continuing in the ambitious, cinematic vein of his previous novel The End Of The Yellow House, Bilton serves up another slice of dark, haunting, poetic, surreal, and occasionally downright weird fiction, all shot through with wry, witty humour and delivered in distinctive, endlessly quotable prose.

Set in 18th-century Bohemia, the story follows the hapless Count Mitrovsky as he pursues a mysterious, possibly mythical poem called At Dawn, Two Nightingales. It’s rumoured to be the most dangerous poem in the world, but the Count believes it may hold the key to unlocking the heart of his beautiful neighbour, Marenka. Alas, Mitrovsky is not the only person in pursuit of the poem, and a ragtag group of nefarious characters, along with some increasingly strange happenings, stand between him and his goal.

A love story, a quest, a comic opera, a possible ghost story, and a mystery with a rug-pull at every turn, At Dawn, Two Nightingales is a riotous Russian doll of a novel, more than deserving of a place on your shelves.