Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE: From the Booker Prize-longlisted author of speculative dreamscapes The Water Cure and Blue Ticket comes the story of an impassioned affair and the city designed to foster it--perfect for fans of I Who Have Never Known Men. ""It reads like a dream which is secretly a nightmare. I loved it."" --Vincenzo Latronico, author of Perfection ""The kind of book that you'll want to read in one long gulp, the literary equivalent of a crisp glass of rosé."" --The Sunday Times (London) Clara and Francis are in love, but nobody knows it. For months they have been stealing away from their respective lives, leaving no trace of their relationship behind. Their time together is always excruciatingly sweet and all too short. Until one day they wake up in an apartment neither of them recognizes, with no memory of how they got there. They find themselves in a new, unnamed city, a self-contained sanctuary where adulterers live openly as couples. Here there are fountains and old town squares and perfect cafes with checkered tablecloths. Ripe fruits wait on the counter each morning, invisible threads bind each lover to the other, and their primary responsibility is to enjoy one another. Contact with the real world is impossible and the city's whims are mysterious--but now those stolen afternoons never have to end. How much would you sacrifice for a life you never thought possible? And how long can you stay in paradise before the cracks start to show? An exploration of desire, novelty, and choice, Permanence explores the tantalizing quandary of what, if anything, can withstand the daily toll of ""forever"".

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9781668206522

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Reviews

""Like 'Severance' for relationships, Permanence traps two secret lovers in a sealed-off city built for adulterers, where the affair can run forever . . . Mackintosh is exactly the writer you want for this kind of uncanny desire experiment.""--Oprah Daily ""Inventive and convincing... A rich, alluring concept, offering much literary fun""--The Guardian ""A brilliant parable about desire, infidelity, and devotion... A dark gem that asks us to consider the cost of intimacy--I tore through it.""--Erin Somers, author of The Ten Year Affair ""I loved this sensuous, moving, and quietly devastating novel. Mackintosh's portrait of a couple in desperate thrall to romance--and her revelations about the dangers and delights of intimacy, of vulnerability's risks and rewards--will stay with me for a long time.""--Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually ""A haunting and seductive novel which pulses with the possibility, or impossibility, of love."" --Avni Doshi, author of Burnt Sugar ""With Permanence, Sophie Mackintosh turns the novel of adultery inside out. This is the perfect imperfect love story: haunting, unsettling, uncanny"" --Lauren Elkin, author of Scaffolding Praise for Sophie Mackintosh: ""Ingenious and incendiary.""--Laura Miller, The New Yorker ""Gorgeously dark, disturbing, and provocative.""--San Francisco Chronicle ""[Mackintosh] is writing the way that Sofia Coppola would shoot the end of the world: everything is luminous, precise, slow to the point of dread.""--The Guardian ""Startling. . . . Mackintosh is a wonderful stylist; the full scope of her imagination, as well as the cohesion of her vision, is evident on every page.""--The Irish Times ""Mackintosh's prose is eerie but minimalist - dreamlike yet grounded. Her style elevates plot to the status of fable or allegory without resorting to straightforward metaphor.""--New Statesman ""Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes."" --Deborah Levy ""Mackintosh's fiction always has a gauzy quality, filled with strange, languid images, which rise to a narrative crescendo like clues in a detective novel. She makes it look effortless.""--Jo Hamya, author of The Hypocrite

Author Information

Sophie Mackintosh is the author of The Water Cure, Blue Ticket, and Cursed Bread. Her novels have been nominated for prizes including the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has been named a face set to define the decade ahead by Vogue UK, and one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. She lives and works in London.

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