Book Reviews – Baby

Baby
By Annaleese Jochems

Cynthia is 21, bored and desperately waiting for something big to happen. Her striking boot camp instructor, Anahera, is equally stifled by her job and marriage and suggests they run away together. With stolen money and a dog in tow they buy ‘Baby’, an old boat docked in the Bay of Islands, where Cynthia dreams they will live in a “state of love”. But there is an intruder waiting to upset Cynthia’s plans. When a trip to an island utopia goes horribly wrong, a rot sets in on their relationship, and they are pulled in different directions. By turns thrilling, funny and disquieting, this is a debut novel like no other. The author won the 2016 Adam Prize from the International Institute of Modern Letters for Baby and is now longlisted for the 2018 Ockham Acorn Fiction Prize. This modern urban cautionary tale is described by award-winning fellow author Eleanor Catton as ‘sultry and sinister … Heavenly Creatures for a new generation’.

Matakana Village Books
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