‘The Near Witch’ is an old tale told to frighten children.

If the wind calls during the night, you mustn’t listen. The wind is unhappy, and always searching for company.

You can find no strangers in the city of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when a genuine stranger, a boy who appears to fade like smoke, appears outside her home in the moor at night, she has learned that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Close to start about The Near Witch disappearing using their beds, as well as the mysterious boy falls under suspicion.

As the search for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know about the witch that might just be more when compared to a bedtime story, about the wind that appears to speak through the wall space at night, and about the history of the nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut book is entirely initial yet achingly familiar: a tune you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a wish you won’t soon forget.

This new edition of The Near Witch also included the in-universe short story ‘The Ash-Born Boy’ and a never-before-seen introduction from V. E. Schwab.