Author(s): Ottessa Moshfegh

Fiction | Mel M's Book Talkers

'This is a story about what might happen when a woman takes charge... A glorious visceral mystery' The TimesWhile on her daily walk with her dog in the woods near her home, Vesta comes across a chilling handwritten note. Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body.Shaky even on her best days, Vesta is also alone, and new to the area, having moved here after the death of her husband. Her brooding about the note grows quickly into a full-blown obsession: who was Magda and how did she meet her fate?From the Booker-shortlisted author of Eileen..._________________________PRAISE FOR DEATH IN HER HANDS:'Routinely hailed as one of the most exciting young American authors working today' Guardian'A new kind of murder mystery' New Yorker'Dark, devious' Observer'A fine line between shocking realism and the absurd' New Statesman'A brilliant off-kilter detective story' Evening Standard'A beautiful novel' Sunday Times

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: MEL M

Ottessa Moshfegh follows up My Year of Rest and Relaxation with another unusual and highly compelling character portrait. Death in Her Hands is not for the faint of heart, following as it does a socially isolated elderly widower after she finds a mysterious note - but it does have a lot of heart, and a wicked sense of humour. This is ultimately a story, I think, about the stories we tell ourselves, especially the stories people with power over us tell us about ourselves - and what happens to us when we believe them for too long. It's about a woman's suffocated imagination and diminished sense of self. It's harrowing and gothic and painterly and not what it seems. I think it's probably brilliant.