Penance: The ‘unmissable banger’ ALICE SLATER from the author of BOY PARTS and SHE’S ALWAYS HUNGRY

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A Guardian Best Book of the Year
A Dazed Best Novel of 2023

‘An unmissable banger.’ ALICE SLATER
‘A meta-meditation on the mysteries, malice, and minutiae of adolescence.’ TOM BENN
‘You’ve never read anything like this.’ JULIA ARMFIELD

Do you know what happened already? Did you know her? Did you see it on the internet? Did you listen to a podcast? Did the hosts make jokes?

Did you see the pictures of the body?

Did you look for them?

It’s been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked the small seaside town of Crow-on-Sea. Based on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, and even correspondence with the killers themselves, journalist Alec Z. Carelli has constructed what he claims is the ‘definitive account’ of the crime. It’s a riveting snapshot of lives scarred by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.

The only question is: how much of Carelli’s story is true?

‘Deeply disturbing and hilarious.’ IMOGEN CRIMP
‘Insanely propulsive . . . She’s a master of structure that Clark.’ JENNY MUSTARD

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:
‘This will no doubt be THE book of the summer. You need to pre-order this NOW.’ @books.with.han
‘Once again, Eliza Clark conjures her dark magic to pen something disturbing and addictive.’ @mostardentlyalice
‘Eliza’s writing is pure brilliance and she captivates you with every page.’ @zoreadsbooks
‘Taking aim at our relationship with true crime, the brutality of teenage girls and classicism, it was easily my favourite read of 2023 so far.’ @charlotte__reads_
‘So cleverly written I am mind blown.’ @jordslibrary
‘Eliza Clark is a genius.’ @mydarkgrace

**Eliza Clark’s incendiary debut, Boy Parts, is available now**

Additional information

Weight 0.37 kg
Dimensions 2.8 × 13 × 19.6 cm
By

Format
language1
Pages

448
Publisher

Year Published

2024-5-2
Imprint

Edition Number

Main
Publication City/Country

London, United Kingdom
ISBN 10

0571371787
About The Author

Eliza Clark is the author of Boy Parts (2020) and Penance (2023) and She's Always Hungry (2024). In 2020, Boy Parts was Blackwell's Fiction book of the year, and in 2022 Eliza was chosen as a finalist for the Women's Prize Futures Award for writers under thirty-five. In 2023, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. She also writes for film and television. A stage adaptation of Boy Parts premiered at Soho Theatre in October 2023.
Review Quote

Eliza Clark is a genius with voice and a master of flipped expectations. Penance astonished me with its breadth, wit and confidence. A wickedly clever deep dive into the nastier corners of the national psyche – you've never read anything like this. — Julia Armfield

Boy Parts was always going to be a tough act to follow, and Penance rises to the challenge – and engulfs it in flames. An unmissable banger that you need to preorder immediately. — Alice Slater

As bleak as it is compelling, Penance is a perfect dark satire of the voyeuristic true crime industry and the media's complicity in sensationalising the pointless destruction of human lives into a vulgar, grubby money-making circus. — Charlotte Vassell

Fans of Joseph Knox's True Crime Story and Megan Abbott's teen noirs will love Clark's meta-meditation on the mysteries, malice, and minutiae of adolescence. — Tom Benn

I loved Boy Parts but this was another creature entirely. Coolly detached, stricter, cleaner, and still insanely propulsive. Vivid, excellent dialogue, at times heartbreaking. She's a master of structure that Clark. — Jenny Mustard

I was left thoroughly gaslit by Penance, a dizzying exploration of the ethics of true crime. In a novel that manages to be both deeply disturbing and hilarious, Clark nails teenage pain and posturing, as well as the seductive moral vacuum of the online world. — Imogen Crimp

One of the summer's most talked-about books. ― Sunday Times, hottest new novels for summer 2023
Back Cover Copy

It's been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.

That story is Penance, a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the 'definitive account' of the murder – and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.

The only question is: how much of it is true?

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