diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 00f4fe47..34bdfca2 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+Notmuch 0.38.1 (UNRELEASED)
+===========================
+
 Notmuch 0.38 (2023-09-12)
 =========================
 
diff --git a/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py b/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py
index c847a1a3..af97e6d1 100644
--- a/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py
+++ b/bindings/python/notmuch/version.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 # this file should be kept in sync with ../../../version
-__VERSION__ = '0.38'
+__VERSION__ = '0.38.1~pre0'
 SOVERSION = '5'
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c2c2f6ab..eec70b05 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+notmuch (0.38.1~pre0-1) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+
+  * New upstream release release candidate
+
+ -- David Bremner <bremner@debian.org>  Sat, 23 Sep 2023 08:15:19 -0300
+
 notmuch (0.38-2) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * Restrict autopkgtests to amd64 and aarch64. There are failures in
diff --git a/lib/config.cc b/lib/config.cc
index 2323860d..6cd15fab 100644
--- a/lib/config.cc
+++ b/lib/config.cc
@@ -416,7 +416,8 @@ _expand_path (void *ctx, const char *key, const char *val)
 
 notmuch_status_t
 _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch_database_t *notmuch,
-				GKeyFile *file)
+				GKeyFile *file,
+				char **status_string)
 {
     notmuch_status_t status = NOTMUCH_STATUS_SUCCESS;
     gchar **groups = NULL, **keys, *val;
@@ -435,6 +436,7 @@ _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch_database_t *notmuch,
 	for (gchar **keys_p = keys; *keys_p; keys_p++) {
 	    char *absolute_key = talloc_asprintf (notmuch, "%s.%s", *grp,  *keys_p);
 	    char *normalized_val;
+	    GError *gerr = NULL;
 
 	    /* If we opened from a given path, do not overwrite it */
 	    if (strcmp (absolute_key, "database.path") == 0 &&
@@ -442,7 +444,14 @@ _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch_database_t *notmuch,
 		notmuch->xapian_db)
 		continue;
 
-	    val = g_key_file_get_string (file, *grp, *keys_p, NULL);
+	    val = g_key_file_get_string (file, *grp, *keys_p, &gerr);
+	    if (gerr) {
+		if (status_string)
+		    IGNORE_RESULT (asprintf (status_string,
+					     "GLib: %s\n",
+					     gerr->message));
+		g_error_free (gerr);
+	    }
 	    if (! val) {
 		status = NOTMUCH_STATUS_FILE_ERROR;
 		goto DONE;
diff --git a/lib/notmuch-private.h b/lib/notmuch-private.h
index c19ee8e2..367e23e6 100644
--- a/lib/notmuch-private.h
+++ b/lib/notmuch-private.h
@@ -726,7 +726,7 @@ notmuch_status_t
 _notmuch_config_load_from_database (notmuch_database_t *db);
 
 notmuch_status_t
-_notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch_database_t *db, GKeyFile *file);
+_notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch_database_t *db, GKeyFile *file, char **status_string);
 
 notmuch_status_t
 _notmuch_config_load_defaults (notmuch_database_t *db);
diff --git a/lib/open.cc b/lib/open.cc
index 54d1faf3..005872dc 100644
--- a/lib/open.cc
+++ b/lib/open.cc
@@ -555,7 +555,7 @@ _finish_open (notmuch_database_t *notmuch,
 	    goto DONE;
 
 	if (key_file)
-	    status = _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch, key_file);
+	    status = _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch, key_file, &message);
 	if (status)
 	    goto DONE;
 
@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@ notmuch_database_load_config (const char *database_path,
     }
 
     if (key_file) {
-	status = _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch, key_file);
+	status = _notmuch_config_load_from_file (notmuch, key_file, &message);
 	if (status)
 	    goto DONE;
     }
diff --git a/notmuch.c b/notmuch.c
index 37286b8f..814b9e42 100644
--- a/notmuch.c
+++ b/notmuch.c
@@ -563,6 +563,12 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
 					       NULL,
 					       &notmuch,
 					       &status_string);
+	if (status_string) {
+	    fputs (status_string, stderr);
+	    free (status_string);
+	    status_string = NULL;
+	}
+
 	switch (status) {
 	case NOTMUCH_STATUS_NO_CONFIG:
 	    if (! (command->mode & NOTMUCH_COMMAND_CONFIG_CREATE)) {
@@ -584,6 +590,8 @@ main (int argc, char *argv[])
 	case NOTMUCH_STATUS_SUCCESS:
 	    break;
 	default:
+	    fputs ("Error: unable to load config file.\n", stderr);
+	    ret = 1;
 	    goto DONE;
 	}
 
diff --git a/test/T030-config.sh b/test/T030-config.sh
index ea0b4012..621e0b69 100755
--- a/test/T030-config.sh
+++ b/test/T030-config.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 test_description='"notmuch config"'
 . $(dirname "$0")/test-lib.sh || exit 1
 
+cp notmuch-config initial-config
+
 test_begin_subtest "Get string value"
 test_expect_equal "$(notmuch config get user.name)" "Notmuch Test Suite"
 
@@ -193,4 +195,17 @@ test_begin_subtest "get built_with.nonexistent prints false"
 output=$(notmuch config get built_with.nonexistent)
 test_expect_equal "$output" "false"
 
+test_begin_subtest "Bad utf8 reported as error"
+cp initial-config bad-config
+printf '[query]\nq3=from:\xff\n' >>bad-config
+test_expect_code 1 "notmuch --config=./bad-config config list"
+
+test_begin_subtest "Specific error message about bad utf8"
+notmuch --config=./bad-config config list 2>ERRORS
+cat <<EOF > EXPECTED
+GLib: Key file contains key “q3” with value “from:�” which is not UTF-8
+Error: unable to load config file.
+EOF
+test_expect_equal_file EXPECTED ERRORS
+
 test_done
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
index 1cbc8125..cf30d88f 100644
--- a/version.txt
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.38
+0.38.1~pre0