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The Water Cure

The Water Cure

LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018

Summary

BRITISH VOGUE 'STAR OF THE FUTURE'

INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE

'A gripping, sinister fable' Margaret Atwood (via Twitter)

'An extraordinary debut - otherworldly, luminous, precise' Guardian

'Bold, inventive, haunting... With shades of Margaret Atwood and Eimear McBride, you'll be bowled over by it' Stylist

Grace, Lia and Sky live in an abandoned hotel, on a sun-bleached island, beside a poisoned sea. Their parents raised them there to keep them safe, to make them good. The world beyond the water is contaminated and men are the contamination. But one day three strangers wash ashore - men who stare at the sisters hungrily, helplessly. Men who bring trouble.

This ebook edition includes an exclusive extract from Sophie Mackintosh's gripping second novel, Blue Ticket, which is out now.

*****

'A feminist fable set by the sea, a female Lord of the Flies. It felt like a book I'd been waiting to read for a long time' Emma Jane Unsworth

'Visceral, hypnotic, with one of my favourite endings I've read in a long while' The Pool

'An unsettling dark fantasy... [It] lingers long after the final page' Daily Telegraph

Reviews

  • Compulsive, eerily gorgeous, [it] will have you gripped until the end... A film adaptation feels inevitable... As far as debuts go, this is superb
    Irish News

About the author

Sophie Mackintosh

Sophie Mackintosh is the author of three novels: The Water Cure, Blue Ticket and Cursed Bread. Her debut novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 and won a Betty Trask Award 2019. Cursed Bread was longlisted for the Women's Prize 2023. She has been published in Granta, The White Review and TANK magazine among others.
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