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From one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists, the critically acclaimed author of the speculative dreamscapes The Water Cure and Blue Ticket, comes the story of a clandestine affair and an alternate city seemingly designed to foster it…
Clara and Francis are in love, but nobody knows it. For months they have been stealing away from their respective lives, leaving no trace of their relationship behind. Their time together is always excruciatingly sweet and all too short. Until one day they wake up in an apartment neither of them recognizes, with no memory of how they got there.
They find themselves in a new, unnamed city, a self-contained sanctuary where adulterers live openly as couples. Here there are fountains and old town squares and perfect cafes with checkered tablecloths. Ripe fruits wait on the counter each morning, invisible threads bind each lover to the other, and their primary responsibility is to enjoy one another. Contact with the real world is impossible and the city's whims are mysterious—but now those stolen afternoons never have to end.
How much would you sacrifice for a life you never thought possible? And how long can you stay in paradise before the cracks start to show?
An exploration of desire, novelty, and choice, Permanence explores the tantalizing quandary of what, if anything, can withstand the daily toll of "forever".
"A philosophical meditation on adultery filled with longing and sweetness." —Kirkus Reviews
"[A] dreamy meditation on the power of love." —Publishers Weekly
"A brilliant parable about desire, infidelity, and devotion... A dark gem that asks us to consider the cost of intimacy—I tore through it." —Erin Somers, author of The Ten Year Affair
"I loved this sensuous, moving, and quietly devastating novel. Mackintosh's portrait of a couple in desperate thrall to romance—and her revelations about the dangers and delights of intimacy, of vulnerability's risks and rewards—will stay with me for a long time." —Monica Heisey, author of Really Good, Actually
This information about Permanence was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sophie Mackintosh is the author of The Water Cure, Blue Ticket, and Cursed Bread. Her novels have been nominated for prizes including the Man Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. She has been named a face set to define the decade ahead by Vogue UK, and one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. She lives and works in London.
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I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library
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