A Little Bit Bad
Published on 4. June 2026
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-241-79289-6 (ISBN)
Description
'This darkly funny, slippery novel is a hoot to read and will please fans of Miranda July's All Fours' The i Paper
Perdita Jungfrau thought she was going to be married to her husband forever, so falling in love with Nando, her 'anarcho-Marxist' handyman, is a crisis.
Life seems to put every possible obstacle in their way: she's pregnant, he has a girlfriend, he's fifteen years younger, she's terrified of messing up her children and equally drawn towards this magnetic man who entrusts her with his deepest secret.
Now it's three years later and Nando has been murdered.
As her bewildered husband tries to make sense of the wildly unpredictable person his wife has become, Perdita has other things on her mind. For starters, who is the mysterious woman sitting outside her house in a parked car all day? How can she stop her adored baby brother from being pulled under by his opioid addiction? Can someone with a childhood like hers ever be the mother her children deserve?
And most of all, what should she do with the searing memories of the affair that turned her life upside down?
Perdita Jungfrau thought she was going to be married to her husband forever, so falling in love with Nando, her 'anarcho-Marxist' handyman, is a crisis.
Life seems to put every possible obstacle in their way: she's pregnant, he has a girlfriend, he's fifteen years younger, she's terrified of messing up her children and equally drawn towards this magnetic man who entrusts her with his deepest secret.
Now it's three years later and Nando has been murdered.
As her bewildered husband tries to make sense of the wildly unpredictable person his wife has become, Perdita has other things on her mind. For starters, who is the mysterious woman sitting outside her house in a parked car all day? How can she stop her adored baby brother from being pulled under by his opioid addiction? Can someone with a childhood like hers ever be the mother her children deserve?
And most of all, what should she do with the searing memories of the affair that turned her life upside down?
Reviews / Votes
So charismatic and confiding; I felt as if I'd found my new (and very bad) best friend * Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood * Structurally thrilling, viciously funny and subversive. Neyenesch's magnetic narrator says the unsayable and thinks the unforgivable - and I would follow her anywhere. I adored every wicked page * Catherine Chidgey, author of The Book of Guilt * Sexy, dangerous, shocking, funny - A Little Bit Bad Is to die for. The most fun you can have with a novel. Perdita is the best bitch in modern fiction yet the anti-heroine we all want and need in our lives * Rachel Johnson * Wholly original and compulsively readable ... fresh, dark, subversive and wildly compelling. I can't stop thinking about it. Neyenesch turns the suspense genre on its head in the best way; I couldn't get enough * Sophie Stava, author of Count My Lies * Enthralling: a feisty true-crime obsessive's erotic awakening in the canyons of California embroils her in her very own murder mystery. Pretty much the platonic-ideal beach read * Ada Calhoun, author of Crush * A Little Bit Bad is a wild ride. Neyenesch has a totally original voice and a fresh perspective on life * Esther Walker * The ripple effects of Miranda July's hugely successful All Fours can be seen in several debuts this year that address sex, desire and monogamy. A Little Bit Bad by Cassandra Neyenesch concerns a woman who has an affair with her neighbour's roofer * BBC - The 40 most exciting books to look forward to in 2026 * Mordantly funny and perfectly pitched....Original and hilarious * Kirkus Reviews * This darkly funny, slippery novel is a hoot to read and will please fans of Miranda July's All Fours * The i Paper *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 224 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
458 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-79289-6 (9780241792896)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Cassandra Neyenesch
A Little Bit Bad
The dazzlingly wild and darkly funny debut novel about desire, obsession, motherhood and marriage
E-Book
05/2026
Penguin Books Ltd
€12.99
Available for download
Person
Cassandra Neyenesch is a Brooklyn-based writer and curator whose reviews and cultural pieces have appeared in The Guardian, Brooklyn Rail, Huffington Post, Public Books, The International Herald Tribune, and Art in America.