Bloomsbury to Publish Putney by Sofka Zinovieff

Bloomsbury to Publish Putney by Sofka Zinovieff

This summer’s must-read: a bold, lushly written novel that will compel and disquiet in equal measure

 

It is the 1970s and Ralph, an up-and-coming composer, is visiting Edmund Greenslay at his riverside home in Putney to discuss a collaboration. Through the house’s colourful rooms and unruly garden flits nineyearold Daphne – dark, teasing, slippery as mercury, more sprite than boy or girl. From the moment their worlds collide, Ralph is consumed by an obsession to make Daphne his.

But Ralph is twenty-five and Daphne is only a child, and even in the bohemian abandon of 1970s London their fast-burgeoning relationship must be kept a secret. It is not until years later that Daphne is forced to confront the truth of her own childhood – and an act of violence that has lain hidden for decades.

Putney is a bold, thought-provoking novel about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the memories that play themselves out again and again, like snatches of song.

  • Sofka Zinovieff’s previous books have received widespread critical acclaim. Her most recent, The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, 2015. Putney will have a major publicity campaign, including masses of author interviews and events
  • Sensitively exploring a taboo subject (a sexual relationship between a child and an adult), this novel is a perfect book club read
  • A powerful, moving must-read novel for fans of Victoria Hislop and Jojo Moyes

Reviews
“Zinovieff’s dark and disturbing novel delicately probes the lines between abuse and consent in this atmospheric, intelligent and ambiguous story” – i, 30 best books to take on holiday in summer 2018
“The ultimate taboo brought to life in a way that’s thrillingly disturbing and evocative. I couldn’t leave it” Mary Portas

Author Biography: Sofka Zinovieff was born in London. She studied social anthropology at Cambridge,
then lived in Greece and Moscow. She is the acclaimed author of three works of nonfiction, Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens, Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life and The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me, a New York Times Editors’ Choice 2015, and one previous novel, The House on Paradise Street. Her writing has appeared in publications including the Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Spectator and the Independent. She divides her time between Athens and England.

 

 

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