Looker
'Dazzlingly creepy storytelling'
By Laura Sims
Read by Katherine Fenton
A hugely compulsive, dark, stylish and intense novel, simmering with Hitchcockian undertones - for readers of LULLABY, EILEEN or THE LEMON GROVE
A hugely compulsive, dark, stylish and intense novel, simmering with Hitchcockian undertones - for readers of LULLABY, EILEEN or THE LEMON GROVE
'This intense, gripping first novel from Laura Sims shoehorns us into a gathering disquiet and sense of dread, heightened at every turn by our sympathetic understanding of her relentlessly unraveling protagonist. The precise, observant writing slips through the skin without ever calling attention to itself'
-Peter Straub, author of A Dark Matter and Interior Darkness
Have you ever wanted to steal someone else's life?
The Professor lives in Brooklyn; her partner Nathan has left her; she can't have a baby. All she's left with is Nathan's old moggy, Cat. Who she doesn't even like.
Then a celebrity actress moves into the area. She's beautiful, with long auburn hair, perfect skin, a lovely smile. She's got children - a baby, even. And a husband who seems to adore her. She leaves discarded household items and toys outside for thrift collection. She leaves her windows open, even at night.
There's no harm, the Professor thinks, in recycling those items. Or looking in through the illuminated glass at that shiny, happy family. Is there?
(P)2019 Headline Publishing Group Limited
Biographical Notes
Laura Sims is the author of four books of poetry, and LOOKER is her debut novel. She lives in Brooklyn.
- Other details
- ISBN:
9781472258786
- Publication date:
10 Jan 2019
- Page count:
- Imprint:
Tinder Press
A simmering sense of dread dominates this brilliant Brooklyn-set debut . . . dazzlingly creepy storytelling, reminiscent of NOTES ON A SCANDAL. Will leave you checking your curtains at night, but this is an utterly absorbing read — Grazia
Unsettling and compelling — Tammy Cohen
In prose that moves between lyrical and caterwauling, the poet Laura Sims has pulled off the high-wire act of making bitterness delicious — Vogue
Looker is a powerful sylph of a book about creation and destruction and the permeable boundary between them — LitHub
Jealousy rears its ugly head in Sims's chilling and riveting debut. In this tightly plotted novel, Sims takes the reader fully into the mind of a woman becoming increasingly unhinged, and turns her emotionally fraught journey into a provocative tale about the dangers of coveting what belongs to another — Publishers Weekly, starred review
With an agile precision reminiscent of Lydia Davis, Laura Sims captures the obsessiveness of a woman who unravels after the collapse of her marriage. A taut, gripping portrait, all the more sinister for its elegance — Leni Zumas, author of RED CLOCKS
This intense, gripping first novel from Laura Sims shoehorns us into a gathering disquiet and sense of dread, heightened at every turn by our sympathetic understanding of her relentlessly unraveling protagonist. The precise, observant writing slips through the skin without ever calling attention to itself — Peter Straub, author of A Dark Matter and Interior Darkness
A dark and stylish drama featuring a self-aware yet unstable narrator — Booklist
Sims's debut is a breathless and unrelenting portrait of one woman's unraveling — Greer Hendricks, co-author of THE WIFE BETWEEN US
By the end you'll be gasping — People