Bitter Orange (Hardback)
  • Bitter Orange (Hardback)
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Bitter Orange (Hardback)

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£14.99
Hardback 288 Pages
Published: 02/08/2018

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'A compulsive page-turner. Fuller creates an atmosphere of simmering menace with all the assurance of a latter-day Daphne du Maurier' - The Times

From the attic of a dilapidated English country house, she sees them - Cara first: dark and beautiful, clinging to a marble fountain of Cupid, and Peter, an Apollo. It is 1969 and they are spending the summer in the rooms below hers while Frances writes a report on the follies in the garden for the absent American owner. But she is distracted. Beneath a floorboard in her bathroom, she discovers a peephole which gives her access to her neighbours' private lives.

To Frances' surprise, Cara and Peter are keen to spend time with her. It is the first occasion that she has had anybody to call a friend, and before long they are spending every day together: eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes till the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. Frances is dazzled.

But as the hot summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don't quite add up - and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the glamorous, hedonistic couple, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur. Amid the decadence of that summer, a small crime brings on a bigger one: a crime so terrible that it will brand all their lives forever.

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241341827
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 407 g
Dimensions: 222 x 138 x 29 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS
Nothing is quite what it seems in this engrossing, moreish novel about a naive woman and the hedonistic couple who beguile her * Sunday Times Culture *
Rich and compelling. Fuller is an accomplished writer * Observer *
Reminds me of JL Carr's A Month in the Country, Daphne Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, and Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Incredibly atmospheric, vivid, and intriguing. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't reading a forgotten classic. * Emma Healey *
A stealthy shocker about thwarted desire. A sinister, slow-burn tale that saves its most heart-wrenching revelation for last * Metro *
A twisty, thorny, darkly atmospheric page turner about loneliness and belonging * Gabriel Tallent, author of My Absolute Darling *
As haunting as tuberose and delicate as a scalpel * Laline Paull *
Heady, claustrophobic . . . makes for perfect heatwave reading. Echoes Penelope Lively's Booker-winning Moon Tiger, Anita Brookner's Look At Me, and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger * Independent *
A rich and hypnotic read * Tatler *
This darkly smouldering, desperately sad, superior psychological thriller contains shades of Zoe Heller's Notes On A Scandal * Daily Mail *
It is rare for me to put down a novel and then immediately consider rereading it to see what cleverness I might have missed. This time, though, I am tempted. * Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times *
Atmospheric. Rich, clever and very readable. * Amanda Craig, Telegraph *
A delicate and disturbing read, alive with love, lust, envy and guilt * S Magazine *
A sinister story that considers the terrifying lengths people will go to escape their pasts. In the vein of Shirley Jackson's bone-chilling The Haunting of Hill House, Fuller's disturbing novel will entrap readers in its twisty narrative, leaving them to reckon with what is real and what is unreal. An intoxicating, unsettling masterpiece. * Kirkus *
Bitter Orange reads like an assured, old-school, du Maurieresque classic. It's an atmospheric page-turner that speeds us towards a bloody climax of shocks and surprises * Irish Times *
Sinister and suspenseful, this gothic novel simmers with guilt, lust and envy * Mail on Sunday *
Bewitching, otherworldly . . . full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller. * Scotsman *
A compulsive page-turner. Fuller creates an atmosphere of simmering menace with all the assurance of a latter-day Daphne du Maurier * The Times *
A rich, dark pressure cooker of a novel that simmers with slow heat and suppressed tension * Ruth Ware *
Dark, beautifully written. It reminds me very much of Ian McEwan's Atonement, with similar slow-build tension and claustrophobic atmosphere * The Pool *
An exquisite and skilfully written novel, which worms its way under your skin while Frances's loneliness seeps off every page * Red *
Fuller is a master at summoning the atmosphere of a heady, hot summer that thrums with tension * Stylist *
Multi-layered, lush, twisty and brilliantly clever * The Sunday Mirror *
A smart creation from a skilled writer: a heady psychological novel that builds its layers carefully to allow gradual revelations and stomach-churning surprises * Financial Times *
Full of complex characters and narrative richness * The Sunday Times Culture *
Loneliness, guilt and atonement are at the heart of the atmospheric Bitter Orange * Good Housekeeping *
Naturally engaging and elegantly written. Fuller is an amply gifted storyteller * Spectator *
With shades of Brideshead and Manderley, Claire Fuller's atmospheric third novel plays a satisfyingly unpredictable game with reader expectations. Prepare to be meticulously unsettled and horribly enthralled * Country Life *
Full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller * Belfast Telegraph *
Cannily releasing clues on the way to an explosive finale . . . The lush setting and remarkable characters make for an immersive mystery * Publishers Weekly *
Elegant, atmospheric, vivid * The Big Issue *
Beautifully written, with echoes of Barbara Vine and Daphne du Maurier * Andrew Taylor, Spectator Books of the Year 2018 *
Sumptuous and sinister with gothic hints, this is a compelling tale of blurred friendships * Prima *

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Hardback

“A Sixties scorcher”

Frances Jellico is not very ’60s’. She is 39 and has lived all her life with her mother: in the last few years she has been her mother’s sole carer. Freed by her mother’s death Frances takes a job at Lyntons, a... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 29
TheBookTrail

“Beguiling novel set in an English Palladian House”

Claire Fuller is an amazing writer. This novel had tinges of Atonement, Beguiled and novels like that with one single lonely manor house and the study of those within. It gave me frissons during it and I didn’t know... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 28

“It’s a tantalisingly good read, full of suspense and titillation!”

This is an excellent book that had me totally hooked from the first few pages. A seductive storyline with strong characters and an atmospheric setting. It’s already had so many good reviews so I’m not sure I can add... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 26

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