The Sitting Tenant
The utterly compulsive new novel from the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of MRS ENGLAND and THE HOUSEHOLD
Will be published approx. on 1. April 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-78658-269-0 (ISBN)
Description
From the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of Mrs England and The Household, comes Stacey Halls' most gripping, unsettling and thought-provoking novel yet.
London, 1960. When Celia and Gregory Ringrose buy their first home on the edge of Hampstead Heath they feel like they've won the lottery. The only catch is that their house comes with a sitting tenant: a lodger they can't get rid of. Thankfully Blythe Morris seems nice. Normal. Older than them, she keeps herself to herself, and causes no trouble.
Soon the Ringroses' first baby arrives, and Blythe takes a keen interest, helping Celia with babysitting and even the night shifts. As Celia struggles with early motherhood, feeding and a loss she's struggled to bury, she comes to rely increasingly on the lodger - until, it seems, she cannot do without her. But who really is this woman who is living in their house, looking after their baby - and what does she want?
Praise for Stacey Halls, winner of the Women's Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award:
'A writer of great originality, great imagination and great sense of place. Atmospheric, intelligent, accessible, every novel is worth reading, then reading again and again' Kate Mosse
'Outstanding. Haunting, compelling, atmospheric'
Emma Stonex
'Utterly compelling. Menacing and marvellously written, this is hugely accomplished'
Daily Mail
'A breathtaking achievement'
Sunday Express
London, 1960. When Celia and Gregory Ringrose buy their first home on the edge of Hampstead Heath they feel like they've won the lottery. The only catch is that their house comes with a sitting tenant: a lodger they can't get rid of. Thankfully Blythe Morris seems nice. Normal. Older than them, she keeps herself to herself, and causes no trouble.
Soon the Ringroses' first baby arrives, and Blythe takes a keen interest, helping Celia with babysitting and even the night shifts. As Celia struggles with early motherhood, feeding and a loss she's struggled to bury, she comes to rely increasingly on the lodger - until, it seems, she cannot do without her. But who really is this woman who is living in their house, looking after their baby - and what does she want?
Praise for Stacey Halls, winner of the Women's Prize x Good Housekeeping Futures Award:
'A writer of great originality, great imagination and great sense of place. Atmospheric, intelligent, accessible, every novel is worth reading, then reading again and again' Kate Mosse
'Outstanding. Haunting, compelling, atmospheric'
Emma Stonex
'Utterly compelling. Menacing and marvellously written, this is hugely accomplished'
Daily Mail
'A breathtaking achievement'
Sunday Express
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bonnier Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78658-269-0 (9781786582690)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Stacey Halls is a Sunday Times bestselling author. She was born in 1989 and grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and has written for publications including Guardian, Stylist, Psychologies, Independent, Sun and Fabulous. Her first book, The Familiars, was the bestselling debut hardback novel of 2019, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut Book of the Year. Mrs England, her third novel, was longlisted for the Portico Prize, the Walter Scott Prize and won the Women's Prize Futures Award.