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Lioness

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Lioness

By: Emily Perkins
Narrated by: Kerry Fox
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Lioness by Emily Perkins, read by Kerry Fox.

** AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER & WINNER OF THE OCKHAM NZ BOOK AWARDS**

'The most exciting novel I've read in ages... I gulped it down, so readable, so EXCELLENT about people. Read it' Marian Keyes

‘This novel is perfection’ Glamour

'A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood… This is an excellent novel’ The Times

You know how we say we devoured a story, and also that we were consumed by it? Eating and being eaten. It was like that with Claire, for me.

From humble beginnings, Therese has let herself grow used to a life of luxury after marrying into an empire-building family. But when rumours of corruption gather around her husband's latest development, the social opprobrium is shocking, the fallout swift, and Therese begins to look at her privileged and insular world with new eyes.

In the flat below Therese, something else is brewing. Her neighbour Claire believes she's discovered the secret to living with freedom and authenticity, freeing herself from the mundanity of domesticity. Therese finds herself enchanted by the lure of the permissive zone Claire creates in her apartment – a place of ecstatic release.

All too quickly, Therese is forced to confront herself and her choices – just how did she become this person? And what exactly should she do about it?

‘A thoughtful, intelligent novel about one woman’s search for more meaning’ Good Housekeeping©2023 Emily Perkins (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction Suspense

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All stars
Most relevant
Really loved this and Kerry Fox does an incredible job of narrating it. I was totally immersed in the world of women’s intertwined lives in NZ.

Brilliant story and fantastic narration

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Soulless, tedious Gen X intellectualism, self-flagellation and pyscho-wrangling with forays into degeneracy and communism sold as a 'search for meaning', set amidst a backdrop of virtue-signalling, materialistic, narcissistic, blinkered and spiteful millennials and privileged elite society.
The writing is not terrible, but I can only think that praise has been forthcoming from contemporaries who are themselves captured authors - no longer able to objectively view and depict reality. Instead 'reality' is now dictated by agents and their lists of 'must-incude' themes and identities, to portray an inauthentic and homogenised societal landscape as a prerequisite for publication.
I think we're supposed to admire the journey the protagonist has been on, but it seems to me she hasn't even begun to open her eyes.

Petty young woman rebels against older woman by defecating on rug.

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I don’t know why but I couldn’t warm to any of the characters , maybe I’m just jaded by stories of how the super wealthy will do anything and anyone to make and keep their money , just not for me at this time .

Power and wealth at what cost

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I never give up on a book but I nearly did on this one. it was a book about...nothing much but boring family conversations and dynamics. I kept waking for something big to happen but sadly it never did. Don't bother!

boring boring boring

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