The Natural Way of Things: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale for our age’ (Economist)

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE WEEKEND

‘Savage: think Atwood in the outback’ Paula Hawkins

‘An unforgettable reading experience’ Liane Moriarty

‘Ferocious… recalls the early Elena Ferrante’ NPR

‘A masterpiece’ Guardian

‘Devastating’
Economist

She hears her own thick voice deep inside her ears when she says, ‘I need to know where I am.’ The man stands there, tall and narrow, hand still on the doorknob, surprised. He says, almost in sympathy, ‘Oh, sweetie. You need to know what you are.’

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in a brokendown property in the middle of a desert.

Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other girls, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious jailers.

Doing hard labour under a sweltering sun, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each girl’s past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man.

They pray for rescue but as the hours turn into days and the days into weeks and months, it becomes clear only the girls can rescue themselves.

Winner, 2016 Stella Prize Winner, 2016 Indie Book of the Year Award Winner, Fiction Book of the Year, 2016 Indie Book Award Winner, 2016 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction Winner, Reader’s Choice, 2016 ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year

Shortlisted, 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlisted, 2016 ABA Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award Longlisted, 2017 International Dublin Literary Award