Paranoia, pills, and torrent after torrent of glorious porn. A marriage devoid of both sex and emotion. A broken hand, a perpetually surreal home reno, a dying dog.

For Jules, a successful professional with a wife and kids, all of this would be manageable
if it wasn’t for Charlie. Because fifteen-year-old girls, dear reader, are something different entirely.

Jules is obsessed with a teenager
he’s falling head over heels and attempting to arrest the march of time. He’s a man, dammit
a man’s man, a guy’s guy
and that’s all that matters.

The Bourgeois Empire, Evie Christie’s first novel, is a Nabokovian fever dream, an encyclopedic guide to mortal sin, and a thoroughly contemporary reimagining of Billy Wilder’s classic film The Lost Weekend. And yes, of course, it’s a love story too.