Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 GORDON BURN PRIZE

‘A page-turning blast.’ Times

‘Genuinely affecting … a very funny book.’ Guardian

‘Burstingly alive and engaging.’ Telegraph

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED HIS BLOODY PROJECT.

‘I have decided to write down everything that happens, because I feel, I suppose, I may be putting myself in danger.’

London, 1965. An unworldly young woman suspects charismatic psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite of involvement in a death in her family. Determined to find out more, she becomes a client of his under a false identity. But she soon finds herself drawn into a world in which she can no longer be certain of anything.

In Case Study, Graeme Macrae Burnet presents both sides: the woman’s notes and the life of Collins Braithwaite. The result is a dazzling, page-turning and wickedly humorous meditation on the nature of sanity, identity and truth itself, by one of the most inventive novelists writing today.

Publisher Review

Praise for His Bloody Project; SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016; SALTIRE SOCIETY FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016; ‘A spellbinding piece of serious new fiction…Riveting, dark and ingeniously constructed.’ Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times; ‘Reads as if Umberto Eco has been resurrected in the 19th-century Scottish Highlands.’ Mark Lawson, Guardian; ‘An astonishing piece of writing … a voice that sounds startlingly authentic.’ Jake Kerridge, Telegraph; ‘Grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let you go. This multilayered novel about a 19th-century murder near Applecross is as heartbreaking as it is desperate.’ Kirsty Wark, Guardian; ‘Brings an extraordinary historical period into focus …This is a fiendishly readable tale that richly deserves the wider attention the Man Booker has brought it.’ Justine Jordan, Guardian; ‘Gripping, blackly playful and intelligent … one of the few [Booker longlist titles] that may set the heather – and imagination – ablaze.’ Robbie Millen, Times; ‘Its overarching themes are timeless.’ New Statesman; Praise for the Gorski novels: Longlisted for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2018 and Hearst Big Book Awards 2018; Longlisted for the Waverton good read award; ‘A classy detective story and a stylish meditation on agency and existence. If Roland Barthes had written a detective novel, then this would be it.’ Philip Womack, Literary Review; ‘Clever, meandering and oh, so French.’ James Marriott, Times; ‘Gripping and intelligent.’ Philip Pullman, Guardian; ‘Burnet is an extravagant talent.’ Mark Lawson, Guardian; ‘A crime novel with post-modern flourishes … The characters of Gorski and Raymond are beautifully observed, and Burnet lets them play out their tragicomic parts with understated humour … Wry, intelligent and a lot of fun.’ Andrew Taylor, Spectator; ‘As steeped in the works of Simenon as a good boeuf bourguignon is in red wine. The characters’ pretensions are mercilessly exposed in frill-free prose.’ Jake Kerridge, Telegraph; ‘Highly accomplished … a denouement like something out of Greek tragedy … [Burnet] playfully adds levels of meaning.’ Anthony Cummins, Observer