Pupa is the first novel by J O Morgan, a Scottish poet who has published seven collections of narrative poems. Set in what Morgan calls an altopia, the characters are human but not as we know it: they must decide if and when to progress to the next stage and transform from larvals into adults.

From the start, the language pulsates with the mystery of such an existence: ‘The pods glowed faintly, a soft grey light issuing from the wide membranous gaps between darker mottlings.’ We first meet Sal, a young larval, on his back waking up. He is not quite Gregor Samsa