Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
Lioness: Winner of the 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
Therese, who has grown comfortable in a life of luxury, is forced to rethink what has sustained her once corruption rumours gather around her husband and she encounters her neighbour Claire. The novel sharply examines class, marriage, privilege, and female anger.
Work Information
When the comfort of privilege starts to crack, Therese begins to look again at the life she has chosen.
Therese has settled into luxury after marrying into a property empire, but corruption rumours around her husband and the pull of her neighbour Claire unsettle the life she has built. The novel cuts sharply into desire, class consciousness, and the strain inside marriage.
Review Summaries
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Readers praise the sharp class portrait and the novel's attention to desire and anger in midlife. At the same time, some find the character dynamics and the force of the plot divisive.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Circus
- Published
- 2023-07-06
- Pages
- 288 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.6 x 3 x 23.6 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781526660664
- ISBN-10
- 1526660660
- Price
- 4854 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Women's Fiction/Contemporary Women
** 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 Times You 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
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). Her work for stage and screen includes co-writing the film adaptation of Eleanor Catton’s novel The Rehearsal (dir. Alison Maclean), an adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House , and the original play The Made . She lives in New Zealand.
Reviews
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fantastic.
Easy to read and yet incredibly thought provoking. I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended and I still I need five more words to submit this!
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Monotonous
I did not finish this novel so to be fair it might have improved if I'd persisted for longer. However, although Emily Perkins is a talented writer, i find her plots mostly wanting. This effort dragged on and on with tedious family stuff that became a big yawn, hence my closing the book and deleting it from my kindle library.
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Family tensions explored with flair
The complexities and responsibilities of being an adored second wife and a younger stepmother build and build to a climax. Great writing.
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Deft, clever, gripping
Could not put this down until finished! The story kept me glued to my Kindle. So many clever, understated bits to enjoy. And it wasn't until towards the end that I realised that the clue to it all was at the very beginning. Marvellously crafted story.
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quick read on holiday
I am male, might have missed some nuances. Easy to read. Many lives might actually be like this. Emotional not action.