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The Body Lies

‘A propulsive #Metoo thriller’ GUARDIAN

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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Body Lies by Jo Baker, read by Imogen Church, Deborah McBride, Sam Woolf, Simon Ludders and Julie Maisey.

A layered and thrilling suspense novel that grapples with how to live as a woman in the modern world - or in the pages of a book - when the stakes are dangerously high.

When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it’s meant to be a fresh start, away from the big city and the scene of a violent assault she’s desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of a new life and single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative writing group.

When a troubled student starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.

Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late?

At once a breathless cat-and-mouse game and a disarming exploration of sexual politics, The Body Lies is an essential book for our times.

 Crime Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Mystery Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Exciting Fiction

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Critic reviews

A propulsive #MeToo thriller investi­gating consent and male entitlement as well as the borders between truth and fiction.
Build-up of tension is EXCELLENT
Packs a powerful punch on every page
Gripping ... with lots to say about sexual politics
This superior thriller looks at how novels represent violence through the story of a creative writing teacher who finds herself trapped between the borders of life and fiction after recognising herself in a story written by one of her students
Powerful read
Jo Baker’s THE BODY LIES is gripping and strange in the best possible way: the perfect marriage of risky literary fiction and full-on thriller.
This page-turning thrilller has a sympathetic and utterly believable heroine, but it's also an examination of how women's bodies are treated, in life and in fiction.
A literary exploration of consent, entitlement and how narratives can be bent, misappropriated and wrested back. I loved it.
A shrewdly layered thriller that unflinchingly tackles the quagmire of pressure, judgement and ever-present danger women navigate in their daily lives
All stars
Most relevant
A gripping interrogation of how writers use crime as entertainment - timely, twisty and thought-provoking

A gripping interrogation of crime writing

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Not at all what I was expecting. Definite influence of creative writing in the diverse chapters. Real empathy with the main character. Loved it.

Totally original

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Incredibly thought-provoking, beautifully written, and at its core, a novel about relationships and the way humans project fears, hopes and desires onto others. It is also about trauma, and although gripping, it is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable.

Thought-provoking, beautiful and difficult

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I don't know what in the world made me think this book was a murder mystery thriller - it is under "Crime & Thrillers - Suspense" so I just think I presumed, even though the synopsis did not mention murder per se it did imply with a "horrific fate" planned and a game of "cat and mouse" it was an easy mistake to make.
But as far as I got in reading it this was much more the "disarming exploration of sexual politics" also mentioned in a kind of he said /she said and another she said and he thought way.
I actually thought the book was very well written and enjoyed the creative writing classes and story told from different points of view, I enjoyed the characters - did not like the animal cruelty though it did come with a trigger warning and though just fleeting could have done without it and I always think it is a lazy way to suggest impending menace or ramp up tension.
I always struggle a bit with Imogen Church as she hangs on every word and tends to milk her performance for everything it is worth instead of letting the story tell itself, but I have found listening to her on 1.25 speed makes it a much more enjoyable, lighter and less laboured read and this time I quite enjoyed her performance as well as the other narrators.
My gripe really was thinking I was getting a murder mystery with an intriguing backdrop of a creative writing course and once I realised that it was not, I just felt a bit let down especially by the title and cover of the book which did look like a typical thriller and the opening which seemed to be about murder mystery rather than anything else.
I would like to say that I did not read the entire book but I was just a bit put off, thought it was so well written and narrated, that it was not what I had signed on for.

Why did I think this was a murder mystery thriller

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good book. though the main character is somewhat annoying at times, I listened to the end, which was worth it. \

worth a listen

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