Gin is an architect on the brink. LIT, the Auckland-based practice she shares with her girlfriend, Clary, has been precarious since their third partner - Clary's ex, Billy - disappeared, presumed dead.
Now, several years later, LIT's financial problems and Gin's personal debts are snowballing. Clary - emotionally fragile since the disappearance - is growing increasingly remote and elusive. When Gin begins to be haunted by glimpses of Billy, she blames stress and guilt. But could he be back, threatening to expose the past?
Trapped in a web of secrecy and betrayal, Gin's downward spiral gathers force as she begins to suspect her paranoia hides an even more shocking truth - one that will send her whole life up in flames.
This stunning debut literary-suspense novel from award-winning writer Anna Woods explores the insidious charm of those who gaslight us, and examines the blurry line between love and control. Anna Woods (Author)
Anna Woods is an award-winning writer from Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland, whose short fiction has been published in a range of journals and anthologies. The recipient of various awards, residencies and mentorships, she has won the Sargeson Prize and been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. LIT is her first novel.
What would you do if someone you knew came back from the dead? A literary suspense novel that plays with perspective and keeps wrong-footing the reader. Taps into the current appetite for dark, intellectually charged fiction, with the world of an elite architecture practice bringing a stylish, claustrophobic, dark-academia sensibility to the manipulation. Perfect for readers of shifting-psychology fiction, LIT sits comfortably alongside novels like Laura Sims' Looker and John Boyne's Fire; stories where paranoia, guilt and obsession twist every relationship. It also taps into the appeal of The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window, with emotional volatility that feels all too real. LIT digs into gaslighting in all its forms: between lovers, between colleagues, and within the stories we tell ourselves. Every time you settle on what really happened, the ground shifts again. Comparable to:
9781761429057 The Hiding Place by Kate Mildenhall (Bookscan 2.8k)
9781460756638 The Ex by Nicola Moriarty (Bookscan 12k)
9781925972658 The Safe Place by Anna Downes (Bookscan 15.7k)
9781786480286 The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney (Bookscan 25k) In a finale that reshapes everything that came before, by the end, you're questioning who's telling the truth, who's pulling the strings, and whether guilt or manipulation is really driving the story.
