The Answers by Catherine Lacey.
Burdened by debt and an unexplained illness, Mary Parsons takes an unusual job connected to the construction of an ideal romantic relationship. Catherine Lacey makes economic necessity and emotional need part of the same predicament.
The novel asks what happens when intimacy is organized as a service. Read it for the tension between a relationship that appears to function perfectly and the less manageable demands of being known.
Granta Paperbacks paperback, ISBN 9781783782185. Cover image supplied by Allen & Unwin.
The Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million options are US paperbacks; the Barnes & Noble edition is ISBN 9781250183088. Apple Books and Kobo offer the FSG ebook, ISBN 9780374714345. Allen & Unwin offers the pictured Granta paperback in Australia.
