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** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS**

‘The most exciting novel I’ve read in ages… I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it’ Marian Keyes

‘This novel is perfection’ Glamour

‘A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood… This is an excellent novel’ The Times

You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.

From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband’s latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.

In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she’s discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.

All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?

‘A thoughtful, intelligent novel about one woman’s search for more meaning’ Good Housekeeping

Publisher Review

'Rich, disturbing, deep, sharp and unputdownable. Gave me shivers about women, families, the masks we wear, how hard it is to tear them off - and what happens when we do.' * Charlotte Wood * 'A terrific novel about self-doubt and changing life.' * Good Reading Magazine * Praise for Emily Perkins: Perkins is an extraordinary writer * Sunday Times * 'Literary fiction at its most luscious' * MAIL ON SUNDAY * 'Brilliant and boundary smashing' * NEW STATESMAN * 'Exhilarating: intensely attentive, funny, lyrical and moving' * DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR * 'Neither quite comedy nor quite tragedy but - exactly like real life - an uneasy blend of both' * GUARDIAN * 'A master of dialogue and plain speech, a casual Carver for our times' * OBSERVER * 'Funny, painful and utterly mesmerising' Perkins writes vividly and often beautifully -- Alan Massie * Scotsman *