I have written seven novels, and each time, I seem drawn to some aspect of illicit or transgressive human behaviour. I find it fascinating to see what goes on beneath the surface – the tiny clues that emerge, the betrayals of others and ourselves. I bought a copy of Lolita from my local bookshop when I was a teenager, and, deeply disturbing though that novel is, I think its themes and prose influenced me, as they have so many authors. In our imperfect lives, there’s also a sense of Schadenfreude to be had as a reader when we read about other people’s terrible mistakes.
I wrote
The Seduction: An Addictive New Story of Desire and Obsession from the Bestselling Author of Sleep with Me
This classic of illicit passion is so beautifully written, so mesmeric in its poetic prose and recreation of a long-gone world, it blew my mind when I first read it and changed my ideas about the possibilities of writing. The young Duras meets a Chinese man on a ferry crossing the Mekong at the start of this autobiographical novel. Their differences in age, wealth, class, race, and expectations, all play out, and it’s a novel as much about exploitation as sexual desire. It’s multi-layered, experimental, but has a real narrative tug. I love it!
A sensational international bestseller, and winner of Frances' coveted Prix Goncourt, 'The Lover' is an unforgettable portrayal of the incandescent relationship between two lovers, and of the hate that slowly tears the girl's family apart.
Saigon, 1930s: a poor young French girl meets the elegant son of a wealthy Chinese family. Soon they are lovers, locked into a private world of passion and intensity that defies all the conventions of their society.
A sensational international bestseller, 'The Lover' is disturbing, erotic, masterly and simply unforgettable.
I loved this novel from the moment I entered its first pages, with its intriguing discovery in a library, and it was a very worthy Booker winner. As two academics uncover more about the lives of the Victorian poets they specialise in, the details of an adulterous relationship from the past slowly emerge, revealed with delicious literary clues and evasions. The male poet is married, while the woman has a female companion. All sorts of devastation ensues. The present starts to echo the past... The cleverness and beauty of this novel are such that it’s a favourite re-read.
Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.
On a very different note, this recent novel about unwise behaviour amused me. It’s well-written, sparky, and I enjoyed it a lot more than Who Killed Maud Dixon?, which covers similar territory. None of the relationships here are really to be envied. I enjoy reading novels by younger women with a very different take on the world, and this one keeps the reader guessing.
'Full of delicious layers . . . I felt drunk reading it.' Emma Jane Unsworth
Intoxicating, compulsive and blackly funny, Other People's Clothes is the thrilling debut novel from Berlin-based American artist Calla Henkel.2009. Berlin. Two art students arrive from New York, both desperate for the city to solve their problems. Zoe is grieving for her high school best friend, murdered months before in her hometown in Florida. Hailey is rich, obsessed with the exploits of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears and wants to be a Warholian legend. Together they rent a once-magnificent apartment from eccentric crime writer Beatrice…
A dark, brooding novel of betrayal, in my memory, it’s all set in shadows – dark streets and badly lit rooms. One man has an affair with another man’s wife, ultimately causing grief for all. The south London setting is so well done, as is the evocation of wartime austerity and infidelity. To me, this is a novel that is largely about atmosphere. Once read, it haunts you forever.
The love affair between Maurice Bendrix and Sarah, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends when she suddenly and without explanation breaks it off. After a chance meeting rekindles his love and jealousy two years later, Bendrix hires a private detective to follow Sarah, and slowly his love for her turns into an obsession.
A real classic, leaving Heller fans in frustration, longing for her to match this achievement. The rank stupidity of the teacher, Sheba’s, affair with a perfectly mundane male pupil – while she has a marriage and children – is perversely enjoyable. But it’s the older female narrator’s warped obsession with Sheba, her desire to control her, to possess her life, that forms the really fascinating and highly ill-advised relationship.
Film tie-in edition of Zoe Heller's darkly compelling Booker shortlisted novel. The film of Notes on a Scandal received four Oscar nominations and stars Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench.
From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George's history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced she has found a kindred spirit. Barbara's loyalty to her new friend is passionate and unstinting and when Sheba is discovered having an illicit affair with one of her pupils, Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba's chief defender. But all is not as it first seems in this dark story…
Beth is relatively happily married, with one daughter and one stepson. She lives beside a shadowy stretch of canal by Camden Lock in London. Troubled by her past and the mother who rejected her, she starts to see a therapist, Dr. Tamara Bywater. Dr. Bywater – soothing, skilled, quietly charismatic – appears to help her, but gradually and unexpectedly she starts insinuating herself into Beth’s mind – and into her life. She is not what she seems at all.
Edge of the Known World is a near-future love and adventure story about a brilliant young refugee caught in era when genetic screening tests like 23AndMe make it impossible to hide a secret identity. The novel is distributed by Simon & Schuster. It is a USA Today Bestseller and 2024 American Fiction Awards Winner in multiple categories, including Best New Fiction, Political Thriller, and Science Fiction: General.
Alexandra is a gifted student, adoring daughter, and exuberant prankster. She is also hiding in the open. After a blissful childhood, Alex learned she’s an illegal refugee from a brutal regime, smuggled into…
Fans of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake will be swept away by this riveting speculative fiction adventure and love story about family, genetic privacy, and the onrushing future of surveillance technology.
2024 American Fiction Awards Winner in multiple categories, including Best New Fiction, Political Thriller, and Science Fiction
Alexandra Tashen is a brilliant student, adoring daughter, merry wit, and exuberant prankster. After a blissful childhood on a Texas ranch, she learns the truth: She is a refusé, an illegal refugee smuggled into the Allied Nations as an infant. Everyone from her birth region carries a harmless but detectable bit of…
