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Pet by Catherine Chidgey – UK book publication
July 13 @ 8:00 am - August 17 @ 5:00 pm
The eighth novel by award-winning New Zealand writer Catherine Chidgey is a chilling story of vulnerability and violence in a Catholic primary school.
Set in New Zealand in the 1980s, Pet probes themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism. It’s slated to take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Go-Between, Heavenly Creatures and Au Revoir Les Enfants among them.
“Chidgey is a find.”
—Times Literary Supplement
“A writer of formidable resources, a deft stylist possessed of uncanny imaginative acuity.”
—The Guardian
The story: Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine’s sense that something isn’t quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie.
Chidgey, whose recent novel Remote Sympathy was longlisted for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction, is rumoured to be attending the Cheltenham Literature Festival in the UK in October.
READ: Pet by Catherine Chidgey review – sly psychological thriller (The Guardian)
