by Matt Ruff
First published 2006
Andy Gage manages the outside world while more than a hundred other personalities inhabit an imaginary house inside his head. His stepfather's brutal abuse killed his original soul, which shattered into fragments that became separate people. Aaron acts as the father figure, Adam causes mischief as a teenager, Jake cowers as a frightened child, Aunt Sam creates art, Seferis stands guard, and Gideon plots to seize control from Andy entirely. The fragile system that keeps Andy's internal house orderly faces collapse when his coworker Penny Driver asks for help. Penny also carries multiple personalities, though she barely recognizes this fact herself. Several of Penny's other selves reach out to Andy for assistance he reluctantly provides. His decision triggers a cascade of dangerous events that threatens to tear apart everything Andy has built inside his mind. As chaos spreads through the house, Andy must confront a devastating secret he has hidden even from himself while working with Penny to prevent total destruction.
Genres: fiction, abuse, mental-illness, contemporary, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Paperback · Contemporary French Fiction
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse, mental-illness