New from Regal House Publishing, The Withers, a desperate fight to defend loved ones

RALEIGH, N.C. - July 6, 2026 - PRLog -- Regal House Publishing announces its new publication The Withers by Lee Upton. author of the comic novel Tabitha, Get Up and the literary mystery Wrongful, as well as collections of poetry, short stories, and literary criticism. Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, in many other magazines, and in three editions of Best American Poetry.

About The Withers
In the aftermath of a devastating epidemic, bodies marked with eerie patterns called withers become symbols of a painful past—a past many want to forget. Riatta, one of the marked, finds herself cast out, a survivor of controversial surgeries that saved her life but cost her everything else. Seeking refuge, she recovers in the home of a surgeon who once saved her. But when she learns his wife is pregnant, a shadow falls over this fragile sanctuary. Ruthless organ traffickers roam the streets, and Riatta is drawn into a desperate fight to protect the unborn child and her friends. With what Lisa Gornick calls "the creeping terror of a Grimm's fairy tale," The Withers is a haunting exploration of obsession, loss, loyalty, and the fragile threads of memory.

Praise for The Withers
"With a poet's delicacy and the creeping terror of a Grimm's fairy tale, Lee Upton has spun a strange and original story that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and your heart then swell with her ode to the love curled inside grief. Anyone who has ever loved a child, an animal, or a friend will resonate with her portrait of the power and beauty of these enduring bonds."
—Lisa Gornick, author of Ana Turns

"Lee Upton's The Withers is a dark dystopian thriller set in the world of medical authority, organ replacement, and genetic engineering. Riatta, a survivor of a plague of sudden death from organ failure, confronts a world of secrets and schemes in which her friends are threatened and she herself is an unwitting pawn. Fast-paced and relentless, Upton has written a story set in a near-future that reflects on our own world. I couldn't put it down."
—Lawrence Coates, author of The Goodbye House

Publication Details
Paperback:   218 pages
ISBN: 9781646037322
US $19.95 / CAN $27.99
Epub/Mobipocket
ISBN: 9781646037339
US $9.99 / CAN $12.99

Available at bookstores, online retailers, and direct at the publisher's storefront (https://regalhousepublishing.com/).

Distribution:
Independent Publishers Group
814 N. Franklin Street
Chicago, IL 60610
P: (800) 888-4741
F: (312) 337-5985
distribution@ipgbook.com

For review copies contact or other inquiries:
Regal House Publishing
806 Oberlin Rd #12094
Raleigh, NC 27605, USA
rhpsales@regalhousepublishing.com

www.regalhousepublishing.com