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Publishers Weekly
08/04/2014Young's deliciously dark follow-up to We All Ran Into the Sunlight is a a black comedy of murder and cannibalism in the English countryside. Fiftysomething Lizzie Prain has murdered Jacob, her husband of 30 years. A practical person, Lizzie knows how to carry on in disposing of the evidence: she must chop up the body and eat her husband limb by limb. The plan is to devour Jacob, tidy up the house, and move to Scotland where she resolves to live a life "structured around avoiding emotional experience at all costs." As she works, Lizzie writes notes to herself both culinary ("Resist the urge to put in a lot of garlic. Cook as normal") and practical, "(This isn't the time for oughts and shoulds"). When Lizzie encounters the much younger neighbor Tom at the local hardware store, her serene veneer starts to crack, threatening to expose her secret. Visions of Lizzie's marriage seep through her notes and give glimpses of a codependent, draining relationship, saddled with misunderstandings and regrets. If Lizzie's actions are the stuff of gruesome hyperbole, her reflections and feeling certainly aren't. The book presents an affecting account of what moving on from a failed relationship looks like, and the personal grappling it may require. (July)
Overview
A startling debut about the extraordinary end of a marriage and its very strange aftermath.
Meet Lizzie Prain. She is an ordinary housewife and lives with her lovely dog and her husband, who is a bit of a difficult fellow, in a quiet cottage in British country side. She's a wonderful cook. She enjoys her garden. And, occasionally, she makes cakes for the village parties.
No one has seen Lizzie's husband, Jacob, for a few days. That's because ...