The dazzling, darkly funny debut that surprises at every turn

Berlin

'One for Sally Rooney fans' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'Compelling, raw and thrillingly strange' MONA AWAD, author of Bunny 
 
'Cinematic and confessional . . . electric' The New York Times 
 
----- 
 
*FOR FANS OF CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN, MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION and EXCITING TIMES* 
 
When Daphne Ferber arrives in Berlin for a fresh start in a thrilling new city, the last thing she expects is to run into more drama than she left behind. 
 
Of course, she knew she'd need to do the usual: make friends, acquire lovers, grapple with German and a whole new way of life. She even expected the long nights gorging alone on family-sized jars of Nutella, and the pitfalls of online dating in another language. The paranoia, the second-guessing of her every choice, the covert behaviours? Probably come with the territory. 
 
But one night, something strange, dangerous and entirely unexpected intervenes, and life in bohemian Kreuzberg suddenly doesn't seem so cool. 
 
Just how much trouble is Daphne in, and who - or what - is out to get her? 
 
Channelling the modern female experience with razor-sharp observation and witty flair, Berlin announces Bea Setton as an electrifying literary voice for her generation. 
 
'Scintillating . . . wonderfully funny' Financial Times 
 
'Terrific . . . [an] unsettling and compelling read' Observer 
 
'I was completely absorbed' FRANCESCA REECE, author of Voyeur 
 
'Cinematically vivid, and refreshingly honest' LISA HALLIDAY, author of Asymmetry

Scintillating . . . Berlin is wonderfully funny, and Daphne's observations about modern life, men and the challenges facing young women always hit the nail

Uncommonly funny, cinematically vivid, and refreshingly honest about how we deceive others and ourselves.

Anyone who's started over in a new city -- let alone a new country -- will relate . . . One for Sally Rooney fans

A compelling, raw, and thrillingly strange outsider tale of loneliness and deception. Setton is a wonderful writer who, with this sharp debut, adds to the great canon of contemporary anti-heroines.

Combining the darkness of a thriller with humour, Bea Setton's debut is a fresh and deeply honest take on the modern female experience

Setton builds her growing paranoia and sense of dread to terrific effect in this unsettling, compelling read.

Enjoyable and astutue . . . Daphne's impressions are rendered in precise, lively prose

Cinematic and confessional . . . Berlin is a Woolfian mirror: Red herrings and cliffhangers stoke interest by conforming to expectations, until the novel undercuts them with digressions and anticlimaxes, reveling in its own formal impunity. . . electric.

[An] engagingly self-conscious debut . . . our attention is firmly held by the wry wit of Daphne's voice, as well as regular hints that she's something of an unreliable narrator . . . the book's success lies chiefly in its line by-line charm

Weird, compelling and unique: I was completely absorbed by BERLIN, with its slippery, unsettling narrator, its vivid evocation of a city seen through the troubling lens of disorientation, and by the writing itself, which gleamed.

Intimate, confessional . . . Rich and rewarding . . . readers will leave eager to hear more from Bea Setton.

Berlin made me laugh aloud, and then became strangely and compellingly dark. I loved it.

I loved this novel with its complex, flawed and fascinating heroine. Bea Setton presents us with a vivid and youthful depiction of one of my favourite cities in the world. A wonderful achievement.

Nick Bradley, author of THE CAT AND THE CITY

In this dark and twisty debut, Setton crafts a clever thriller-cum-expat narrative for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation . . . Setton expertly portrays the wily, seductive nature of addictions and dysfunctions . . . Daphne's youthful despair and loneliness are horror stories in and of themselves-ones from which it is hard to look away, especially when coupled with the evocative German setting. . . Raw thriller meets darkly funny coming-of-age for an enjoyable, unsettling debut.

A moving and rollicking tale of self-delusion...Setton proves herself a masterful and hilarious chronicler of contemporary life...Well-plotted while still capturing the meandering feeling of Daphne's unbound life, and with deliciously handled foreshadowing, Setton's sharp novel of stunted plans is compulsively readable and ultimately devastating. This isn't one to miss.

Written in funny, punchy vignettes perfect for consumption between U-Bahn stops, and a few hours in the presence of Daphne Ferber pay generous spiritual dividends.

Bea Setton's luminous drama will keep you on your toes with razor-sharp wit

Shines an unsparing light on the murky grey space of a woman's mid-twenties with a narrative voice that's sharp, wry, and unexpectedly tender

Isabel Kaplan, author of NOT SAFE FOR WORK

Bea Setton's narrator Daphne, full of quirky observations, incisive humour, and a winning vulnerability, is a delight to chase through Berlin. Although I couldn't always decide whether I wanted to scold her, shake her, or join her, I know I'll never forget her.

Beth Ann Fennelly, author of THE TILTED WORLD

It's uncomfortable, it's telling, it's interesting, it's thought-provoking, just everything . . . it really delivered

Bea Setton's scathing portrait of expat life traps her protagonist in layers of self-deception . . . an astute accounting of a young woman's checkered struggle to change her life

When Daphne Ferber arrives in Berlin for a fresh start in a thrilling new city, the last thing she expects is to run into more drama than she left behind. 
 
Of course, she knew she'd need to do the usual: make friends, acquire lovers, grapple with German and a whole new way of life. She even expected the long nights gorging alone on family-sized jars of Nutella, and the pitfalls of online dating in another language. The paranoia, the second-guessing of her every choice, the covert behaviours? Probably come with the territory. 
 
But one night, something strange, dangerous and entirely unexpected intervenes, and life in bohemian Kreuzberg suddenly doesn't seem so cool. Just how much trouble is Daphne in, and who - or what - is out to get her?

Bea Setton

A tense and compulsive novel of unnatural fixation

'I just loved it &ndash; it truly wedged itself into my brain. Absolutely vile and brilliant. Plaything is an unhinged melody, and it will serenade fans of the darkest narratives.' ALICE SLATER, author of Death of a Bookseller 
 
Anna is smart. Smarter than you, probably. But when she falls for the beautiful, enigmatic Caden, her need to get under his skin, to truly know him becomes overpowering. 
 
Anna&rsquo;s new life in Cambridge is full of promise &ndash; she&rsquo;s the top student in her PhD cohort, she has great friends and she has met an exhaustingly attractive man &ndash; but something is a little off. Perhaps it&rsquo;s the routine violence of her lab work with animals, or maybe it&rsquo;s something to do with her boyfriend&rsquo;s icy reserve but it seems there is a kind of menace hiding beneath the Cambridge dream. 
 
When Anna and Caden's lives become tightly entangled, her obsession with Caden&rsquo;s seemingly ever-present ex-girlfriend reaches a dangerous pitch&hellip; Just how far will she go to satiate her curiosity? 
 
------------------- 
 
FROM THE REVIEWS FOR BEA SETTON&rsquo;S BERLIN 
 
'Terrific . . . [an] unsettling and compelling read' Observer 
 
'I was completely absorbed' FRANCESCA REECE, author of Voyeur 
 
'Compelling, raw and thrillingly strange' MONA AWAD, author of Bunny 
 
'Cinematically vivid, and refreshingly honest' LISA HALLIDAY, author of Asymmetry

Bea Setton

Plaything

Select a format:

Pre-order:

Summary

More books from this author