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.
If you eat the bread, you'll die, he said. The statement made no sense, but it filled me with an electric dread. Elodie is the baker's wife. Plain, unremarkable, ignored, she burns with a secret hunger to be extraordinary. One day a charismatic new couple appear in town and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long she stalks them through the shining streets- inviting herself into their home, listening to their coded conversations, longing to possess them. Meanwhile, beneath the tranquil surface of daily life, strange things are happening. Six horses are found dead in a sun-drenched field. Widows see their husbands walking spectral up the moonlit river. A teenage boy throws himself into the bonfire at the midsummer feast. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town, and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop. Audacious and mesmerising, Cursed Bread is a tale of a town gripped by madness, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes.
From the author of the Booker Prize longlisted novel The Water Cure comes another mesmerizing, refracted vision of our society: What if the life you're given is the wrong one? "Blue Ticket adds something new to the dystopian tradition set by Orwell’s 1984 or Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale." —New York Times Book Review 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 marriage and children. A blue ticket grants you a career and 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? When Calla, a blue-ticket woman, begins to question her fate, she must go on the run. Pregnant and desperate, Calla must contend with whether or not the lottery knows her better than she knows herself—and what that might mean for her child. With Blue Ticket, Sophie Mackintosh has created another mesmerizing, refracted vision of our world that explores the impossible decisions women have to make when society restricts their choices.