Author(s): Emily Perkins

Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction Finalists 2024

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?  'Perkins is an extraordinary writer' The Sunday Times