Prima Facie
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4.2 • 76 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Tessa is a thoroughbred. A young, brilliant barrister from a working-class background now at the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and lighting up the shadows of doubt in any case. The law is a game and she is its most talented player.
One sickening night, though, Tessa finds herself in a position countless women - one in three - have been in before her. And she's faced with a gut-wrenching, life-changing decision. Will she take the stand to testify about her rape, with the full awareness that the system has not been built to protect her?
Drawn from the internationally acclaimed play, Prima Facie is a propulsive, raw look at the price victims pay for speaking out and the system that sets them up to fail. With breakneck prose and a devastating emotional intensity, this is a novel for our times, by one of Australia's most impressive writers.
'A fantastic read, page-turning and thought-provoking. The kind of story you can't stop thinking about. I loved it.' JANE HARPER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA LITERARY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKPEOPLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ADULT FICTION 2024
Praise for Prima Facie
'Not many books can immediately draw you in, keep you up all night, and break your heart over and over again. But still you can't put it down. Can't look away. There are not enough superlatives for Suzie Miller's incendiary novel. Just read it.' Heather Rose
'Suzie Miller has created a relatable, seminal work in our understanding of sexual abuse. Brilliant!' Magda Szubanski
'Enthralling and sharp-witted - Prima Facie takes an unflinching look inside a legal system that is more punishing to the victims of sexual assault than it is to the assailants. A scathing and true look at how the legal system can retraumatise victims. Highly recommended.' Karin Slaughter
'As defamation laws are weaponised against sexual assault victims in an already hostile legal environment, this timely and deeply moving novel could not be more important. A defence barrister learns in the absolute worst way what it is like to be raped not once, but twice, the second time by her own profession.' Jane Caro
'Miller's star shines as brightly as a novelist as it does as a playwright. Prima Facie the novel gives us what novels
do: the intimacy of interior life. A great read.' Anna Funder
'Miller's novel is searing, vindicating and absolutely necessary both in the injustices it names and the emotions it evokes. I am grateful to her for writing it.' Sarah Krasnostein
'Brilliant concept. Convincing, worthy, a must read.' Claudia Karvan
'Bold, fearless, heartbreakingly timeless. Written with skill, humour, despair and hope, Prima Facie is a deeply rewarding, absolute must read.' Chris Whitaker
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this bracing if somewhat stilted debut, playwright Miller adapts her Olivier-winning play about London criminal defense barrister Tessa Ensler, whose fierce faith in the law is challenged after she's raped by a colleague. Though Tessa prides herself on being a champion for underdogs like her older brother, Johnny—whose juvenile run-ins with the justice system have tainted his professional prospects—she has surprisingly few qualms about defending men accused of sexual assault. Her favored tactic in these cases is superficially sympathetic but ultimately devastating cross-examinations of her client's female accusers. One night, after a bout of heavy drinking, Tessa is assaulted by a colleague with whom she's been carrying on an affair. As she wrestles with the same conundrums faced by the women she's eviscerated on the stand, the novel hits its stride on the way to a climactic courtroom showdown. Miller's narrative more than succeeds as an impassioned piece of advocacy that illuminates the tilted playing field facing sexual assault survivors. Without the immediacy of the stage, however, it can sometimes feel less like a novel than a brilliantly argued legal brief. Miller provides plenty of food for thought, but she doesn't quite nail the transition from stage to page.
Customer Reviews
I fought the law
The author is Australian human rights lawyer turned British playwright, and now novelist. Her award-winning play ‘Prima Facie’ (2019) swept all before it in London’s West End then on Broadway, where it is still running. Actress Jodie Cromer (of ‘Killing Eve’ fame) won a Tony for her performance in the lead (and sole) role: Tess Ensler, a female defence barrister who becomes the complainant in a sexual assault case against a male colleague.
Ms Miller has now expanded her play into a novel, which supplies considerably more detail of the backstory, and aftermath for the protagonist, a scouse gal from a broken home who makes it to Cambridge and then to the bar among a more privileged cohort of peers, but discovers that rape trials look very different from the witness box than as defence counsel.
The writing is strong, the pacing good when it has to be, but slow in between, like court cases. Ms Miller makes the 782 day jump from the charging of her protagonist’s rapist to the start of the court case in a single page turn, then fills in the highlights (low lights, depending on your perspective) of the intervening period as flashbacks while Tessa is giving her testimony. No spoilers about the ending.