Author Guide · Literary Fiction & Gothic
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In “Starver”, one of the stories in Daisy Johnson’s first book, a teenage girl in the Fens stops eating until she turns into an eel. Two years later, in 2018, her first novel, Everything Under, a retelling of Oedipus Rex set among the boat people on the rivers around Oxford, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She was 27, the youngest author ever shortlisted. Her second novel, Sisters, about two girls born ten months apart in a decaying house on the North Yorkshire coast, became the film September Says, which premiered at Cannes in 2024. Her settings are drained marshland, rivers, the sea, a hotel built on cursed ground. This guide covers her 5 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 2016–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Daisy Johnson has published five books: the story collection Fen (2016), the novels Everything Under (2018), Sisters (2020) and Long Wave (2026), and the ghost-story collection The Hotel (2024). Start with Everything Under, shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Below are all five in order, what each is about, and the film adaptation of Sisters.
Where to Start with Daisy Johnson
If you want her most acclaimed book
→ Everything Under (2018) — the Booker-shortlisted retelling of Oedipus on the river.
If you want a haunted-house novel
→ Sisters (2020) — two sisters, their mother and a house on the coast.
If you want short stories
→ Fen (2016) — the Fens, eels, foxes and girls who change shape.
If you want something short and spooky
→ The Hotel (2024) — ghost stories first written for BBC Radio 4.
5 Daisy Johnson Books, in Order
Fen
Her debut, published by Jonathan Cape in 2016 and by Graywolf in the US in 2017: linked stories set in the Fens of eastern England, the marshland drained for farming in the 17th century. In “Starver” a girl named Katy starves herself into the shape of an eel; in “Blood Rites” a group of young women lure men home to eat them; “The Scattering” follows a teenager, Matilda, and her twin brothers. It won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize in 2017.
Everything Under
A retelling of Oedipus Rex on the waterways around Oxford. Gretel, now a lexicographer, grew up on a houseboat with her mother, Sarah, speaking a private language of invented words, until Sarah gave her up when she was a teenager. Sixteen years later she goes looking for her, and for the winter when a boy called Marcus stayed on the boat and something they called the Bonak lived in the river. Published by Jonathan Cape in July 2018, it was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, making Johnson, at 27, the youngest shortlisted author in the prize’s history.
Sisters
July and September were born ten months apart, and September has always been in charge. After something happens at their school in Oxford, their mother, Sheela, takes them to Settle House, a run-down family house on the North Yorkshire coast, where July, who narrates, begins to lose track of where her sister ends and she begins. The New York Times named it a notable book of the year. Ariane Labed adapted it as the film September Says, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in May 2024.
The Hotel
Fifteen linked ghost stories about a Gothic hotel built on cursed land in the Fens, with a history of violent death, including a Room 63, and a pull that guests struggle to escape. Most of the people it affects are women: mothers, night-shift workers, thrill-seekers, students making a film in the derelict building. The stories were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in late 2020, read by actors including Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, and came out as a short book in 2024.
Long Wave
Her third novel, published by Jonathan Cape in 2026 and by Riverhead in the US. Ori was found alone on a remote island as a small child, with no memory and no mother. When she has a baby of her own, sleeplessness loosens her grip on what is real and the island comes back to her. A second strand follows Ruth, who at ten sees a woman and a baby vanish into a river, and is shut away by her own mother.
In What Order to Read Daisy Johnson
None of her books share characters, so you can read them in any order. Publication order does show the same ground worked from different sides: the Fens of Fen return as the setting of The Hotel, and mothers and daughters bound by something they cannot name run through Everything Under, Sisters and Long Wave.
If you are not sure about her style, try one story from Fen first, such as “Starver”. Sisters is the most direct horror novel of the five; The Hotel is the shortest, at about 160 pages.
A reading path
1. Fen (2016)
2. Everything Under (2018)
3. Sisters (2020)
4. The Hotel (2024)
5. Long Wave (2026)
The years · 1990–2026
Quick facts about Daisy Johnson
- Known for
- Unsettling literary fiction in which myth, landscape and horror shape stories about mothers, daughters and sisters, and for being, at 27, the youngest author ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
- 1990
- Born in Paignton, Devon
- 2018
- Everything Under, Booker shortlist
- 2026
- Long Wave
- Born
- 31 October 1990, Paignton, Devon; grew up around Saffron Walden, Essex
- Education
- English and Creative Writing at Lancaster University; MA in Creative Writing at Somerville College, Oxford
- Lives
- Oxford
- Debut
- Fen (2016), winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize
- Booker
- Shortlisted in 2018 for Everything Under, aged 27
- On screen
- September Says (2024), Ariane Labed’s film of Sisters
The red mark is 2018: Everything Under, her first novel, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
How Daisy Johnson Writes: Myth, Water and Horror
Johnson builds stories on old frames. Everything Under follows the outline of Oedipus Rex, with Sarah in the place of Jocasta, and moves it to a houseboat on the Thames; in Fen, folk tale and fable turn literal, as when a starving girl becomes an eel. The landscape does much of the work: drained fen, river, the North Yorkshire coast, an island with a lighthouse that has no light.
She has called Sisters her “love story to the horror genre” and names horror films such as Halloween and The Exorcist, and the writer Shirley Jackson, among her influences. Her horror is mostly made of unease rather than monsters: a house that seems to listen, a sister whose orders cannot be refused. She works hard at the sentence, and has said she is “a little dyslexic” and thinks about sentences differently. Sisters began in the third person and twice its final length, and was cut back in draft after draft.
Her recurring subject is family, especially mothers and daughters and the language they share. In Everything Under Gretel and Sarah have their own invented words; in Sisters July and September barely need words at all; in Long Wave three generations of women are tied by what was not said.
Watch
Daisy Johnson on Everything Under
Iman Amrani of the Guardian talks with Daisy Johnson about her debut novel Everything Under, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. From the official Guardian channel.
Frequently asked questions about Daisy Johnson’s books
How many books has Daisy Johnson written?
Five: the story collection Fen (2016), the novels Everything Under (2018), Sisters (2020) and Long Wave (2026), and the ghost-story collection The Hotel (2024).
What are Daisy Johnson’s books in order?
Fen (2016), Everything Under (2018), Sisters (2020), The Hotel (2024) and Long Wave (2026).
Where should I start with Daisy Johnson?
With Everything Under, her Booker-shortlisted first novel. If you prefer a straight haunted-house story, start with Sisters; if you want to sample her style in a few pages, read a story from Fen.
What is Daisy Johnson’s most famous book?
Everything Under (2018), which was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Sisters (2020) is also widely known, partly through its film adaptation, September Says.
Did Daisy Johnson win the Booker Prize?
No. Everything Under was shortlisted in 2018, when she was 27, which made her the youngest author ever shortlisted. The prize that year went to Anna Burns for Milkman.
Is Everything Under based on Oedipus?
Yes. It retells Oedipus Rex among the boat people on the rivers around Oxford, with the lexicographer Gretel looking for her mother, Sarah, who gave her up sixteen years earlier.
Has Sisters been made into a film?
Yes. Ariane Labed adapted it as September Says, her first film as director, with Pascale Kann as September, Mia Tharia as July and Rakhee Thakrar as their mother, Sheela. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes on 21 May 2024.
Is Daisy Johnson’s The Hotel a radio play?
It began on the radio. The fifteen stories were first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between September and December 2020, read by actors including Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, and were published as a book in 2024.
What is Daisy Johnson’s newest book?
Long Wave (2026), her third novel, about Ori, a woman found alone on a remote island as a child, whose past returns after she has a baby of her own.
How old is Daisy Johnson and where does she live?
She was born on 31 October 1990 in Paignton, Devon, grew up around Saffron Walden in Essex, and lives in Oxford.
Footnotes
- Daisy Johnson (writer) — Wikipedia
- Everything Under — The Booker Prizes
- Daisy Johnson on horror and sibling relationships — The Bookseller
- Eerie Fen is full of dazzling stories — NPR, 2017
- September Says — Wikipedia
- Long Wave — Bookreporter
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I think I will always write about family.”
— Daisy Johnson, interview with The Bookseller (2020)
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