The Body Lies
‘A propulsive #Metoo thriller’ GUARDIAN
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- €6.99
Publisher Description
---A GUARDIAN BEST SUMMER READ---
'A very modern interrogation of violent fiction. Fiendishly readable' SARAH MOSS, GUARDIAN
'Powerful and moving' ERIN KELLY, author of He Said/She Said
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When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it's meant to be a fresh start. But when one of her students starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.
Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late?
At once a breathless battle-of-wits and a disarming exploration of sexual politics, The Body Lies is an essential book for our times.
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'Outstanding' CLARE MACKINTOSH
'A literary exploration of consent, entitlement and how narratives can be bent, misappropriated and wrested back. I loved it' SARAH VAUGHAN
'A propulsive #MeToo thriller.' GUARDIAN
'Gripping. The perfect marriage of risky literary fiction and full-on thriller' MARIA SEMPLE
'Page-turning thriller and examination of how women's bodies are treated, in life and in fiction.' THE BOOKSELLER
'A novelist with a gift for intimate and atmospheric storytelling' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Baker's heroine is one of the most believable I've seen on the page in a long time...nuanced, non-linear, lifelike' TLS
'Gripping and fast-paced' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Still traumatized three years after being assaulted during her pregnancy near her South London home, the unnamed novelist who narrates this lyrical suspense novel from Baker (Longbourn) leaps at the offer of a university lectureship in rural Lancashire, even though it means she and her toddler son will be separated from her husband, who can't leave his teaching job in London. The move will indeed change everything but hardly the way she hopes. For starters, their rose-covered rented house redefines remote. And then there are the unanticipated challenges presented by her creative writing students in particular, the most talented but also most troubling one, Nicholas Palmer, whose seemingly autobiographical work in progress centers on a young woman who dies under mysterious circumstances. Though Nicholas starts pushing for an inappropriate personal relationship with the narrator, his writing skill makes her loathe to establish firm boundaries a decision that backfires catastrophically after a Christmas party. Soon she's fighting to save her job, her marriage, and even her life. All too plausible, Baker's powerful tale is at times heart-rending to read and impossible to put down.
