A lavish Upper West Side apartment is the site of a familial cold war about to enter a phase of dangerous escalation. J is a lonely woman without the luxury of being alone. Her husband has fled to Paris with his latest flame, leaving J with not only their own four-year-old daughter, Sally Ann, but the sulky, cake-mix addicted, thirteen-year-old Renata, a leftover from his previous marriage.

Writing letters in her head to imaginary friends, J delights in dwelling on the hapless Renata, who 'invites a kind of cruelty'. This is an invitation J fully intends to take up - and like so many stepmothers before her, she will find that wickedness, once indulged, is a difficult habit to kick. A mordant black splinter of a book, Caroline Blackwood's first novel is a testament to her razor-sharp mastery - and mockery - of the darkest depths of human feeling.

'Contained and ferocious' TLS
 
'Punchy . . . a clever and perfectly formed novel' The Times
 
'One of the greatest, darkest writers who ever lived' VIRGINIA FEITO
 
'Witty, observant, clever' Guardian
 
'The perfect book for people who find Joan Didion too even-keeled, Renata Adler too fair-minded . . .' LA REVIEW OF BOOKS