The Body Lies

The Body Lies

‘A propulsive #Metoo thriller’ GUARDIAN

Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Body Lies by Jo Baker, read by Imogen Church, Deborah McBride, Sam Woolf, Simon Ludders and Julie Maisey.

A layered and thrilling suspense novel that grapples with how to live as a woman in the modern world - or in the pages of a book - when the stakes are dangerously high.


When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it’s meant to be a fresh start, away from the big city and the scene of a violent assault she’s desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of a new life and single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative writing group.

When a troubled student starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.

Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late?

At once a breathless cat-and-mouse game and a disarming exploration of sexual politics, The Body Lies is an essential book for our times.

Reviews

  • A propulsive #MeToo thriller investi­gating consent and male entitlement as well as the borders between truth and fiction.
    Guardian

About the author

Jo Baker

JO BAKER is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling LONGBOURN and A COUNTRY ROAD, A TREE. Her latest novel, THE BODY LIES, is a thrilling contemporary novel that explores violence against women in fiction but is also a disarming story of sexual politics. Jo Baker lives with her family in Lancashire.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more