Stephanie Bishop | Paperback | March 2023
From award-winning Stephanie Bishop comes a dark and compulsive novel about writing and desire that everyone will be talking about in 2023
There were things that I wanted to say. Things I knew I couldn't say but needed to tell someone. And then the things I knew I should say. What they wanted to hear. There is never only one version.
Novelist JB Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her one-time professor, Patrick is much older than JB. A maverick when they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all new gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. He is a film director. A cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and JB is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art, that has been forever overseen by Patrick, is starting to overshadow his.
For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. There is nothing but dark water all around them.
Then a storm hits. When Patrick falls overboard, JB is left alone, as the search for Patrick's body, the circumstances of his death and the truth about their marriage begins.
'The Anniversary is an example of both deft literary craft and an engrossing read - a feat rarer than it should be' AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
'A surprisingly dark and complex novel. It is intelligent and literary in the best sense of the word: fluent in style, self-aware in its deployment of genre' WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
'Compelling and dark, a psychological thriller that makes you want to peel back the layers ... For fans of Rachel Cusk or Siri Hustvedt' BOOKS+PUBLISHING
'A literary potboiler about love, obsession, professional rivalry between intimates and the dilemmas confronting a female artist. Riveting' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'Impossible to put down' DAILY MAIL
