Certain books worm their way into your soul, grabbing you from the opening paragraph and holding you in their grip until the final page has been turned. Sofka Zinovieff's Putney is just such a book, compelling the reader from its atmospheric opening until its bruising, bittersweet end (Sarah Hughes i)Smart and gripping (Alex Preston Observer, Books of the Year)Among the hottest books of this blazing summer (Allison Pearson Daily Telegraph)Accomplished, timely and unusually well-wrought (Sarah Moss Guardian)Zinovieff handles this difficult subject with control, insight, wisdom and sympathy . For anyone who came of age in that era, this can be an uncomfortable read, as well as an utterly fascinating one. I think it's the best novel of 2018, by far (Cressida Connolly Spectator, Books of the Year 2018)Sofka Zinovieff writes about this moral minefield with the necessary sensitivity, inhabiting her characters so convincingly that the conclusion is all the more chilling (Kate Saunders The Times)Delves deep into the discussions surrounding consent and abuse of power. Zinovieff has written a contemporary Lolita in which the rules of engagement have changed, women are speaking out about the ways they have been misused and the Humbert Humberts face prosecution and disgrace . Zinovieff is skilled at evoking the shifting moral and social terrain ... Richly drawn and convincingly realised (Observer)This superb novel from the highly regarded Zinovieff dissects every moral ambiguity ... Zinovieff twists the reader's sympathy to and fro, until the final revelation. Over and above the central subject, this is a finely nuanced study of the way different people make subjective sense of the past, and a reminder that the novel (like the analyst's couch) is a great space for thinking about the unthinkable (Sunday Times)Zinovieff's dark and disturbing novel delicately probes the lines between abuse and consent in this atmospheric, intelligent and ambiguous story (i, 30 best books to take on holiday in summer 2018)Unputdownable: a modern classic (The Lady)

A bold, thought-provoking novel that will compel and disquiet in equal measure, about the moral lines we tread, the stories we tell ourselves and the secrets we bury; 'the best novel of 2018, by far' (Cressida Connolly, Spectator)A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 - CHOSEN BY THE OBSERVER, NEW STATESMAN AND SPECTATOR

1970s London. Ralph, an up-and-coming composer, has gone to visit Edmund Greenslay in his riverside home. At the heart of the house's wild bliss he finds Edmund's nine-year-old daughter Daphne, flitting, sprite-like, through the house's colourful rooms and unruly garden. From the moment their lives collide Ralph is consumed by an obsession to make Daphne his.

Decades later, Daphne watches her own daughter come of age and is confronted with the truth of her own childhood - and a devastating act of violence that has lain hidden for decades.