The Night Guest (Paperback)
Fiona McFarlane (author)- In stock online
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award
Winner of the inaugural Voss Literary Prize
Joint winner of the Barbara Jefferis Award
In an isolated house on the New South Wales coast, Ruth, a widow whose sons have flown the nest, lives alone. Until one day a stranger bowls up, announcing that she's Frida, sent to be Ruth's carer.
At first, Ruth welcomes Frida's vigorous presence and her willingness to hear Ruth's tales of growing up in Fiji. She even helps reunite Ruth with a childhood sweetheart. But why does Ruth sense a tiger prowling through the house at night? Is she losing her wits? Can she trust the enigmatic Frida? And how far can she trust herself?
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton General Division
ISBN: 9781444776690
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 200 g
Dimensions: 197 x 132 x 19 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Horribly believable, The Night Guest is an impressive debut novel that sustains the tense unravelling of its mystery. * The Sunday Times *
This psychological thriller feels uneasily close to the realities many families face . . . What's real and what's imagined are terrifyingly difficult to distinguish. It's surreal and menacing. * The Times *
McFarlane exploits the vulnerably blurry boundaries of memory here to create a subtle and beguiling crescendo of suspense . . . A limpid, beautiful novel. * Daily Mail *
A witty, poetic psychological thriller in which the reader becomes so firmly embedded in Ruth's mind that one cannot help but sympathise with her confusion * Financial Times *
A powerfully distinctive narrative about identity and memory, the weight of life and the approach of death * Guardian *
Beautifully written and psychologically tense . . . extraordinarily accomplished * Sunday Express *
You wouldn't think this was a debut novel, it is so accomplished and confident . . . A witty, menacing psychological thriller * Mumsnet *
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“The Night Guest”
This is a fantastic novel about an isolated retiree whose questionable mental awareness leads to a fascinatingly unreliable (or is it?!) narrative describing the arrival of Frida into Ruth's life. There is a... More
“An evocative and creepy debut.”
The Night Guest is hard to categorise - it's both a taut thriller and an altogether close-to-home examination of dementia and loneliness, written with a wonderful sense of pacing and language. Although the main... More
“Very Clever!”
Ruth is a lonely widow, who sees tigers in the night, prowling around her house. However, this is not Africa, but suburban New South Wales in Australia! This is not her only visitor.
Enter Frida, who claims she has...
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