Death in Her Hands: A Novel

"After that, Ottessa Moshfegh – one of the most outstanding young literary talents working today – will publish her latest novel Death in her Hands, which follows the darkly provocative tale of opting-out, My Year of Rest and Relaxation , and her Booker-shortlisted Eileen . This new novel is a detective story of a sort, centring upon an elderly widow living alone in the woods who finds a note on the forest floor apparently reporting a murder – but no body. As with Eileen, it is a book that plays with elements of crime fiction, but don’t expect a paint-by-numbers thriller that ties off neatly by the end. Dark and character-driven. Shortly to be released in the US, but already out (and well-received) in the UK are Ben Okri’s The Freedom Artist and Five Books alumnus Emma Jane Unsworth ‘s Grown Ups which is currently a Sunday Times bestseller in Britain. Also out now in the UK – and available on pre-order in the US – is the latest offering, from the author of A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing (which won – amongst other things – the Bailey’s Prize, Goldsmiths Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize). Strange Hotel is a slim, stream-of-consciousness novella that portrays the internal monologue of an unnamed woman in a series of anonymous hotel rooms, as she considers identity, trauma and romantic disappointment – and the intellectual defence mechanisms she has developed to survive."