- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- ISBN: 9781446484692
- Length: 256 pages
- Price: £5.99
The Engagement
Two People. How Many Lies?
A woman and a man drive at dusk to a rural for a final weekend together.
It's all been a game. Both players understood the rules. Or so the woman thinks.
At the house a new game begins. A trap has been set. But how and why? And for Whom?
A woman and a man drive at dusk to a rural for a final weekend together.
It's all been a game. Both players understood the rules. Or so the woman thinks.
At the house a new game begins. A trap has been set. But how and why? And for Whom?
Lucy Scholes, IndependentA complex psychological thriller that draws on the rich literary history of madwomen in the attic, from Jane Eyre and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca... The Engagement is not Fifty Shades of Grey; its kicks, and kicks in the teeth, are much more subtle.
Fleur MacDonald, Literary ReviewThe pages fly past so quickly you almost miss the sharp turn of phrase and imagery … Chloe Hooper’s novel engages us, like Liese in Colquhoun’s fantasy, in an S&M web for which we don’t know the safe word.
Alex Peake-Tomkinson, Daily TelegraphThe novel has an affecting oddness all its own... I hope that some of E L James' seemingly insatiable fans chance upon The Engagement and find there is more satisfaction in its pages than in Christian Grey’s whipping room.
Stephanie Bishop, Times Literary SupplementThe Engagement is Chloe Hooper’s second novel and comes almost a decade after her well-received debut, A Child’s Book of True Crime. It is a much tighter, more suspenseful work… The Engagement is compelling.
The New YorkerHooper ably sustains the tension, carefully deploying surprises. The isolation of the farm and the “creeping shocks” of the wilderness create a potent unease.
Catherine Taylor, Sunday TelegraphChloe Hooper’s writing is singularly challenging and confrontational... For those who prefer their erotic literature less Fifty Shades of Grey and more Jane Eyre.
Tom Adair, ScotsmanDaphne du Maurier, Charlotte Brontë, Alfred Hitchcock, you hear them approving, a cackling cacophony to counterpoint Liese’s voices, so beautifully spun by Chloe Hooper it all sounds seamless. Polished gothic.
John Self, GuardianEngagement reminds us too of the power of fiction, both within the story and outside it. Liese feels threatened by the stories she herself has told, and we in turn flip the pages breathlessly, suspending disbelief.
David Grylls, Sunday TimesIn terms of myth, it is rather like Bluebeard’s castle...in film terms, it recalls Psycho.
Suzy Hansen, Financial TimesA gothic tale, filled with brilliantly creepy details.
About Chloe Hooper
Chloe Hooper’s first novel, A Child’s Book of True Crime, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She has written lauded nonfiction about Australia, including The Tall Man which follows the investigation of an Aboriginal man’s death in custody, and The Arsonist, the investigation of a deliberately lit wildfire. Most recently she has co-authored, with Helen Garner and Sarah Krasnostein, The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial; it is forthcoming later this month from Text Publishing in Australia and Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK.
Details
All editions
- Paperback 2014
- Ebook 2013