'An urgent story told beautifully' - Dolly Alderton
'Gripping, unflinching and elegant' - Sophie Mackintosh
A powerful, unforgettable story about modern love, privilege and a young woman's journey after her life falls apart.
******
When Kate meets Max in the first week of university, a life-changing friendship begins. Over the next four years, the two become inseparable. But loving Max means knowing his family: the wealthy Rippons, all generosity, social ease and quiet repression.
Theirs is not Kate's world, and yet she finds herself drawn quickly into their gilded lives, and the secrets that lie beneath. Until one summer evening at the Rippons' home, just after graduation, her life is shattered in a bedroom while a party goes on downstairs.
******
An Observer Hottest-Tipped Debut Novelist and Elle One To Watch
'Unforgettable...subversive and sophisticated' Elle
'Outstanding...brilliantly told' Observer
'A writer with a voice as fresh as new paint... Beautiful' The Times
'One of the most powerful debuts you'll ever read' Stylist
'Scorching and original' Sunday Times, Style
'Dazzling... Enthralling' Alexandra Kleeman
'Unputdownable... A powerful and haunting tale' Independent
'If you like David Nicholls, Elizabeth Day, Donna Tartt...it's exceptional' Pandora Sykes
'Compelling... Price's prose glimmers' Mail on Sunday
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781529110784
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 271 g
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 23 mm
Moving, vivid, confronting and bold, What Red Was is an urgent story told beautifully - Dolly Alderton
Subversive and sophisticated… [Rosie Price’s] exploration of sexual violence and class makes for an unforgettable read - Elle, Books to Look Out for in 2019**
Bringing together themes of survival, agency, complicity, self-denial and, ultimately, courage, this assured book is one of the most powerful debuts you’ll ever read. - Stylist
An incredibly nuanced exploration of the complexities of sexual violence, WHAT RED WAS heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent. This is an important book. - Louise O'Neill, author of ASKING FOR IT and ALMOST LOVE
WHAT RED WAS is a gripping novel that shines an unflinching light on trauma and its prismatic impact. A deeply necessary book, elegant and assured even as it burns at the centre with cool, clear-eyed rage. - Sophie Mackintosh, author of THE WATER CURE
One of the best books I've ever read about female rage and transgression, and the boundaries of both family and art, shot through with gorgeous prose, wrapped in a thrilling plot. WHAT RED WAS is at once incredibly timely and one for the ages. An assured and stealthily brilliant debut that people will be talking about for a long time - Lisa Gabriele, author of THE WINTERS
Rosie Price has a dazzling gift for rendering the mechanisms of power and privilege viscerally real--whether that power is as concrete as a hand over a face, or more amorphous, subtle, and difficult to name. With its penetrating insight into the texture of trauma and its enthralling prose, this is a book that succeeds in prying open our cultural moment and laying it bare for scrutiny - Alexandra Kleeman, author of YOU TOO CAN HAVE A BODY LIKE MINE
[A] conversation-starting novel about love, violence and toxicity from [a] subversive new voice - Evening Standard
A confident and provocative debut - John Boyne, The Times
Price never takes the obvious route or goes for an easy resolution. A writer to watch - Sarra Manning, Red
Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy that I picked up at the Vintage Event in Newcastle last month.
I had the pleasure of hearing Rosie speak & read from this novel, which she kindly signed and...
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I found this book a (sometimes uncomfortably) honest, unflinching portrayal of life being turned upside down. This really rang true and was also a stunning novel, beautifully written.
The start of this book reminded me of Brideshead Revisited. Kate Quaile starts university and makes friends with the charismatic Max who comes from a wealthy family background (for Brideshead read Bisley ). Like... More
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