Sophie Mackintoshs fictie duikt in verontrustende vragen over lichaam, identiteit en vrouwelijkheid. Haar proza, bekend om zijn intense sfeer en suggestieve taal, verkent de donkerdere facetten van de menselijke ervaring. Mackintosh bouwt meesterlijk spanning op en trekt lezers mee in werelden die zowel vreemd als verontrustend vertrouwd zijn. Haar stijl is uniek en laat een blijvende indruk achter.
Imagine three sisters raised on an island, taught to fear the outside world and its men. And imagine the men who come to find them: three strangers washed up by the sea, bringing desire and destruction in their wake.
In 1951, still reeling in the aftermath of the deadliest war the world had ever seen, the small French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit succumbed to a mass poisoning. The poison induced hysteria, violent and euphoric hallucinations, and many deaths. In the years before the disaster, there lived in the town a woman named Elodie. She was the baker's wife- a plain, unremarkable person who yearned to transcend her dull existence. So when a charismatic new couple arrived in town, Elodie quickly fell under their glamorous spell. Thus began a dangerous game of cat and mouse, the intoxication of the chase slowly seeping into everything - but who was the predator and on whom did they prey? Audacious and mesmerising, Cursed Bread is a darkly gleaming tale of a town gripped by madness, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.
Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you children. A blue ticket grants you freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. And, once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back. But what if the life you're given is the wrong one? Blue Ticket is a devastating enquiry into free will and the fraught space of motherhood. Bold and chilling, it pushes beneath the skin of female identity and patriarchal violence, to the point where human longing meets our animal bodies.