Her, Harriet Lane
Her, Harriet Lane
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Her
A Novel

Author: Harriet Lane

Narrator: Julie Maisey

Unabridged: 8 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/06/2015

Categories: Fiction, Women, Crime, Family Life


Synopsis

You don't remember her -- but she remembers you.

Two different women; two different worlds. On the face of it, Emma and Nina have very little in common. Isolated and exhausted by early motherhood, Emma finds her confidence is fading fast. Nina is sophisticated and assured, a successful artist who seems to have it all under control. And yet, when the two women meet, they are irresistibly drawn to each other. As the friendship develops, as Emma gratefully invites Nina into her life, it emerges that someone is playing games-and the stakes could not be higher.

What, exactly, does Nina see in Emma? What does she want? And how far will she go in pursuit of it?

A gripping novel about friendship and identity, about the wild hopes and worst fears of parenthood, about the small and easily forgotten moments that come to define a life, Her is unputdownable-compelling and hauntingly discomfiting.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Celina

I was comfortably poised to give this psychological thriller five stars. I loved the beautiful prose, the gradually increasing sense of menace and tension, the examination of how a woman's identity and sense of self can be utterly subsumed by motherhood. Then I finished it. I believe the words that c......more

Goodreads review by Blair

(Review originally published on my blog, February 2014) (Warning: because I wanted to discuss this book in detail, my review below contains more spoilers than usual. Not with regards to specific plot points, just general developments, but you may want to avoid reading it in full if you are planning t......more


Quotes

"A gripping, chilling, powerful novel of unintended consequences and undeserved retributions, youthful innocence and middle-aged regret, parental guilt and filial obligation, all played out on the dangerous edge of rationality."—Chris Pavone, author of The Expats

"Compelling and chilling. Like all good thrillers, HER creeps up on you. You can't stop lapping up the rich domestic details, the astute observations about modern motherhood and female friendship, but you're skittish, aware of the growing shadow. What happened in the past? Which one is the psychopath? The end will make you yelp."—Christina Schwarz, author of Drowning Ruth

"Never have I seen the angst and vulnerability of early motherhood so vividly portrayed. Harriet Lane explores the "tyranny of domesticity" and the almost primitive bonds that link women to their children and also to other mothers. HER is at once funny and terrifying. I read it in one sitting and when I was finally able to put it down, my heart was pounding."—Ann Leary, author of The Good House

"This book knocked the breath out of me in the very best sense. HER is mesmerizing, nail-biting, deeply atmospheric and, ultimately, haunting. Harriet Lane has crafted an intoxicating interplay between friendship and betrayal, mothering and memory, vulnerability and opportunity. Watching the story unfold is like watching the perfect storm gather at sea and roll in toward the coast. The creeping sense of inevitability, combined with warning signals that foretell something dangerously wrong, adds up to a suspense novel that's all kinds of right."—Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood

"In her captivating new novel, HER, Harriet Lane crafts a tale of suspense that seeps slowly and inevitably between the cracks of two otherwise ordinary lives. Writing with a quiet confidence and an eye for the most perfect details, Ms. Lane lures her readers into the lives of Nina and Emma, two women at opposite ends of raising a family. Ms. Lane finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, and this gift will keep readers enthralled until the novel's thrilling end."—Lori Roy, author of Bent Road and Until She Comes Home

"A spellbinding book. Think of Virginia Woolf under the influence of Claude Chabrol. Just beneath the smooth, beautiful sentences lies a world alive with terror."—Tom McNeal, author of To Be Sung Underwater

"Lane is a brilliant observer of the intricacies of the everyday.... As seductive as it is chilling, HER is quality literary fiction meets psychological thriller, the devil of which is in the detail."—Lucy Scholes, Guardian (UK)

"Early contender for book of the year. Another triumph from Harriet Lane."—Erin Kelly

"With chilling precision, Lane narrates the re-entwining of these two women's lives through domestic details. Afternoon teas, disastrous shopping trips, cluttered homes and even well-populated playgrounds begin to seep with danger. And the net inexorably tightens. A domestic thriller of the first order."—Kirkus (starred review)

"A gracefully written psychological thriller about friendship wielded as a weapon.... Like Nina herself, the novel is subtle, deliberate, chillingly effective, and hauntingly sad."—Publishers Weekly