by Muriel Spark
First published 2018
Edith, a retired schoolteacher, lives alone in her London flat, tending to her houseplants and avoiding human contact. As her grip on reality slowly unravels, she becomes convinced that the air itself is a sentient, threatening force, hell-bent on smothering her. Trapped in her own mind, Edith navigates a disorienting maze of paranoia and loneliness, unable to discern friend from foe. Spark's incisive prose weaves a chilling portrait of a woman unraveling, posing unsettling questions about the nature of consciousness and the human need for connection.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, chilling, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: psychological-horror, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
304 pages · Paperback · New Directions
Content warnings: mental-illness