The author of the "evocative, spine-tingling, and razor-sharp"
(Bustle) I'm 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 long-term 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,
Penny--with a growing sense of unrest and distrust--starts 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
Reid's "exquisite novel of psychological suspense" (Publishers Weekly,
starred review) explores questions of conformity, art, productivity,
relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.
