Description

The author of the evocative spinetingling and razorsharp Bustle Im Thinking of Ending Things that inspired the Netflix original movie and the short shocking The Guardian Foe returns with a new work of suspense following an elderly woman trapped in a mysterious facility

Penny an artist has lived in the same apartment for decades surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age until things start to slip Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier provisions were made for a room in a unique longterm care residence where Penny finds herself after one too many incidents

Initially surrounded by peers conversing eating sleeping looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house all is well She even begins to paint again But as the days start to blur together Pennywith a growing sense of unrest and distruststarts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling

At once compassionate and uncanny told in spare hypnotic prose Iain Reids exquisite novel of psychological suspense Publishers Weekly starred review explores questions of conformity art productivity relationships and what ultimately it means to grow old