The Names That We Keep by Edward Johns — the official cover, with a cyan-lit Swansea alley and two silhouetted figures

Edward Johns · A novel set in Swansea

The NamesThat We Keep

Some names are written down.
Others are quietly erased.

A dark investigative suspense novel.

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Publication day
12 November 2026

Swansea, South Wales Memory. Identity. The cost of care.

The story begins with a question

The urn did not weigh what it should.

For Carys Matthias, that is where the questions begin.

When Carys begins asking what happens after a cremation service ends, she is drawn into a system that has learned how to reduce grief to process — and people to useful material.

Edward Johns

Behind the stories

Edward Johns

Edward Johns is a Welsh writer and frontline worker in emergency ambulance services. His debut novel, The Names That We Keep, is rooted in Swansea, where he lives and works.

Coming next · In development

Hafn Lane

Two Swanseas occupy the same ground. One remembers what the other erased.

Discover Hafn Lane