Susanna Clarke buzz

Susanna Clarke’s next book is real, and the online reaction shows how little it takes to electrify readers who have been waiting years for new fiction. (bloomsbury.com) The new book is *The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City*, an illustrated short story set in the world of *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell*. Bloomsbury lists the U.K. edition for October 22, 2026, with preorders already open. (bloomsbury.com) The story is set in 1110 A.D. and follows Bishop Ranulf Flambard as Durham is trapped by an eerie wood and the fairy host moves across northern England. Bloomsbury describes it as “a long-lost chapter” in the lore of Clarke’s 2004 novel. (bloomsbury.com) Part of the reaction comes from the gap between Clarke’s major books. *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* was published in 2004, *Piranesi* followed in 2020, and Bloomsbury says the new story returns again to the same fictional universe. (bloomsbury.com) Clarke’s backlist helps explain the intensity. Bloomsbury says *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* was published in more than 34 countries and won the 2005 Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award, while *Piranesi* became a *New York Times* and *Sunday Times* bestseller. (bloomsbury.com) *Piranesi* also won the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, giving Clarke a second wave of readers well beyond the fantasy audience that first found her through *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell*. (womensprize.com) This is not Clarke’s first recent return to that setting in shorter form. In April 2025, *The Bookseller* reported that she published “The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City” on Fictionable, describing it as a story she had been thinking about “for a long time.” (thebookseller.com) Clarke also published *The Wood at Midwinter* in 2024, another short, illustrated work tied to the *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* world. Bloomsbury’s U.S. listing describes it as a 64-page story with an afterword by Clarke. (bloomsbury.com) Her earlier novel has stayed visible in other formats too. The BBC adaptation of *Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell* aired as a seven-part series in 2015, helping keep the book in circulation for viewers who came to Clarke through television rather than the novel itself. (bbc.originals.watch) So the burst of social attention was less a surprise than a release valve: a new Clarke book, a familiar fictional world, and a publication date readers can finally mark on the calendar. (bloomsbury.com)