Emily Perkins – författare

Tom Stone is madly in love with his wife Ann. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy a semi-derelict house in Hackney. Despite their spiralling money troubles, they believe this is their settled future. But Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As their child grows, Ann's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, feverish and disturbed. On the verge of losing everything, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives. Novel About My Wife is a taut, sensuous and chilling portrait of a marriage beset by paranoia and obsession.

Tom Stone is madly in love with his wife Ann. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy a semi-derelict house in Hackney. Despite their spiralling money troubles, they believe this is their settled future. But Ann becomes convinced she''s being shadowed by a homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As their child grows, Ann''s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, feverish and disturbed. On the verge of losing everything, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.

Novel About My Wife is a taut, sensuous and chilling portrait of a marriage beset by paranoia and obsession.

________________LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013________________''Perkins is an extraordinary writer ... The Forrests is a novel to be savoured'' - Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times''Dexterously communicates some of life''s less-syncopated rhythms ... Funny, painful and utterly mesmerising'' - Independent on Sunday''The novel I would most like to press into my friends'' suitcases this summer ... kept me up reading late into the night'' - Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph________________Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of Auckland, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune.Through the wilderness of a commune, to falling in love, to early marriage and motherhood, from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return of love, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes; revelations come to light; death changes everything, but somehow life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in just being won''t let her go.In a narrative that shifts and moves, growing as wild as the characters, The Forrests is an extraordinary literary achievement. A novel that sings with colour and memory, it speaks of family and time, dysfunction, ageing and loneliness, about heat, youth, and how life can change if ''you''re lucky enough to be around for it''.________________''Literary fiction at its most luscious'' - Mail on Sunday''An ambitious family saga flooded with light and life'' - Julie Myerson, New Statesman Books of the Year''Exhilarating: intensely attentive, funny, lyrical and moving'' - Kate Summerscale, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year''Remarkable'' - Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review''Extraordinary ... a magnificent novel'' - Arifa Akba, Independent''An intelligent and perceptive novel'' - Allan Massie, Scotsman________________

** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS**'The most exciting novel I've read in ages... I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it' Marian Keyes'This novel is perfection' Glamour'A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood… This is an excellent novel' The TimesYou know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?'A thoughtful, intelligent novel about one woman's search for more meaning' Good Housekeeping

** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS**'The most exciting novel I've read in ages... I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it' Marian Keyes'This novel is perfection' Glamour'A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood… This is an excellent novel' The TimesYou know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?'A thoughtful, intelligent novel about one woman's search for more meaning' Good Housekeeping

** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS**'The most exciting novel I've read in ages... I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it' Marian Keyes‘This novel is perfection’ Glamour'A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood… This is an excellent novel’ The TimesYou know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?‘A thoughtful, intelligent novel about one woman’s search for more meaning’ Good Housekeeping

** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS**'The most exciting novel I've read in ages... I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it' Marian Keyes‘This novel is perfection’ Glamour'A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood… This is an excellent novel’ The TimesYou know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?‘A thoughtful, intelligent novel about one woman’s search for more meaning’ Good Housekeeping

In a small town in New Zealand, lifelong friends, Rachel, Julia and Chicky, are celebrating the end of school, enjoying the liminal space of the summer holidays before their lives will be transformed by university, careers and adulthood. The arrival of Miranda, an exotically beautiful and charismatic woman, will have a profound effect on the ostensibly concrete bond between the girls, revealing long-ignored cracks in their friendships. In The New Girl, Emily Perkins employs her sharp wit and incisive eye to demonstrate the profoundly destructive effects of resentment, mistrust and lies.

In a small town in New Zealand, lifelong friends, Rachel, Julia and Chicky, are celebrating the end of school, enjoying the liminal space of the summer holidays before their lives will be transformed by university, careers and adulthood. The arrival of Miranda, an exotically beautiful and charismatic woman, will have a profound effect on the ostensibly concrete bond between the girls, revealing long-ignored cracks in their friendships.

In a small town in New Zealand, lifelong friends, Rachel, Julia and Chicky, are celebrating the end of school, enjoying the liminal space of the summer holidays before their lives will be transformed by university, careers and adulthood. The arrival of Miranda, an exotically beautiful and charismatic woman, will have a profound effect on the ostensibly concrete bond between the girls, revealing long-ignored cracks in their friendships. In The New Girl, Emily Perkins employs her sharp wit and incisive eye to demonstrate the profoundly destructive effects of resentment, mistrust and lies.

London has ground Daniel down. Grasping for an escape from the urban drudgery of his life, he is enticed by a free trip and the promise of ten thousand dollars, all for the simple delivery of a package for an acquaintance.Finding himself quickly ensnared in the murky netherworld of drug smuggling, Daniel''s life descends into a montage of casinos and grungy hotels, stuck in New Zealand when he wins and loses a fortune in one night. Grit and tenacity will be his only redemption in this illicit pressure-cooker of a world. Equally dissatisfied with her life, Kate, an usherette in Auckland, pines for an ex-boyfriend and yearns for genuine fulfilment. Their lives will become indelibly entwined.Sharp and poignant, Emily Perkins'' debut novel examines a disenfranchised generation in search of purpose.

London has ground Daniel down. Grasping for an escape from the urban drudgery of his life, he is enticed by a free trip and the promise of ten thousand dollars, all for the simple delivery of a package for an acquaintance.Finding himself quickly ensnared in the murky netherworld of drug smuggling, Daniel''s life descends into a montage of casinos and grungy hotels, stuck in New Zealand when he wins and loses a fortune in one night. Grit and tenacity will be his only redemption in this illicit pressure-cooker of a world. Equally dissatisfied with her life, Kate, an usherette in Auckland, pines for an ex-boyfriend and yearns for genuine fulfilment. Their lives will become indelibly entwined.Sharp and poignant, Emily Perkins'' debut novel examines a disenfranchised generation in search of purpose.

Finding himself quickly ensnared in the murky netherworld of drug smuggling, Daniel’s life descends into a montage of casinos and grungy hotels, stuck in New Zealand when he wins and loses a fortune in one night. Grit and tenacity will be his only redemption in this illicit pressure-cooker of a world. Equally dissatisfied with her life, Kate, an usherette in Auckland, pines for an ex-boyfriend and yearns for genuine fulfilment. Their lives will become indelibly entwined.

________________LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013________________'Perkins is an extraordinary writer ... The Forrests is a novel to be savoured' - Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times'Dexterously communicates some of life's less-syncopated rhythms ... Funny, painful and utterly mesmerising' - Independent on Sunday'The novel I would most like to press into my friends' suitcases this summer ... kept me up reading late into the night' - Helen Brown, Daily Telegraph________________Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of Auckland, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune.Through the wilderness of a commune, to falling in love, to early marriage and motherhood, from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return of love, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes; revelations come to light; death changes everything, but somehow life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in just being won't let her go.In a narrative that shifts and moves, growing as wild as the characters, The Forrests is an extraordinary literary achievement. A novel that sings with colour and memory, it speaks of family and time, dysfunction, ageing and loneliness, about heat, youth, and how life can change if 'you're lucky enough to be around for it'.________________'Literary fiction at its most luscious' - Mail on Sunday'An ambitious family saga flooded with light and life' - Julie Myerson, New Statesman Books of the Year'Exhilarating: intensely attentive, funny, lyrical and moving' - Kate Summerscale, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year'Remarkable' - Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review'Extraordinary ... a magnificent novel' - Arifa Akba, Independent'An intelligent and perceptive novel' - Allan Massie, Scotsman________________

Rejacketed edition of the darkly gripping novel by the Ockham Prize-winning author of LionessTom Stone is madly in love with his wife Ann. Pushing forty and expecting their first child, they buy a semi-derelict house in Hackney. Despite their spiralling money troubles, they believe this is their settled future. But Ann becomes convinced she's being shadowed by a homeless man whose presence seems like a terrible omen. As their child grows, Ann's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, feverish and disturbed. On the verge of losing everything, Tom makes a decision that he hopes will save their lives.Novel About My Wife is a taut, sensuous and chilling portrait of a marriage beset by paranoia and obsession.Emily Perkins is the author of a prize-winning collection of short stories, Not Her Real Name, and four novels, including Novel About My Wife (winner of the NZ Book Award and the Believer Magazine Book of the Year, The Forrests (longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction) and Lioness (winner of the Ockham NZ Prize for Fiction).