Other People's Fun
A wickedly funny literary thriller for the Instagram age
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- 79,00 kr
Publisher Description
From the author of Alys, Always and Her
'The perfect lesson in backstabbing. Bitchy, sly and twisty' Claire Fuller
'Brilliant, clever, such a pleasure to read' Marian Keyes
'A one-sitting read steeped in tension and unease' Red
If someone wants to be seen - and oh, how they want to be seen - then someone has to watch.
Ruth is alone, unnoticed and at a loss: her marriage has ended, her daughter is leaving home and her job is leading nowhere.
But luckily Sookie is back in her life - vivid, self-assured Sookie, who never spared the time for Ruth when they were teenagers, but who now seems to want to be friends. What could possibly go wrong?
As Ruth becomes caught up in Sookie's life, she sees that everything is not as simple and Instagrammable as Sookie would have you believe. But what has that got to do with Ruth - and what can she do about it?
Other People's Fun is a novel about modern life and the lies we tell our neighbours, friends, families and selves through the hall of mirrors that is social media. Filled with Harriet Lane's trademark creeping unease and forensic observation, this marks the long-awaited return of the mistress of literary suspense.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lane (Her) offers a sharply observed psychological drama about friendship and the pitfalls of social media. Ruth lives alone after her husband left her and supports herself as a freelance translator. At her high school reunion, almost none of her classmates remember her except for Sookie, now a wealthy health and beauty writer, whom Ruth has been following for years online. As they catch up, Ruth feigns ignorance, afraid to embarrass herself by exposing her fixation on Sookie's success. The two strike up a relationship that looks like friendship, but which Lane shrouds in sinister undertones. Ruth swipes Sookie's designer sunglasses when she's not looking and seethes as Sookie prattles on about feeling adrift without ever asking Ruth about her own travails. As Ruth bitterly reflects, "This is the way it was when we were girls... some people need the light, others shrink from it." Still, she remains eager to please, so she lets Sookie use her apartment for trysts with a lover. A subplot about a sex abuse scandal at their old high school feels shoehorned in, but the narrative's rickety structure is made up for by the women's increasingly complex series of power plays. Like an influencer's feed, this is hard to look away from.
