My Dark Vanessa

‘A package of dynamite’—Stephen King

‘The book everyone will be talking about in 2020’—Louise O’Neill

‘Riveting, compulsive, urgent’—Elizabeth Day

An era-defining novel about the relationship between a 15-year-old girl and her teacher

Vanessa Wye was 15-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher.

She is now aged 32 and the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student of his. Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn’t abuse. It was love. She’s sure of that. But now, in 2017, in the midst of allegations against powerful men, she is being asked to redefine the great love story of her life—her great sexual awakening—as rape.

Nuanced, uncomfortable, bold and powerful, and as riveting as it is disturbing, My Dark Vanessa goes straight to the heart of some of the most complex issues our age is grappling with.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
9780008342258 (paperback)
HarperCollins, 1 February 2020

WIN: Email Caitlin.Toohey@harpercollins.com.au with your full name and address for your chance to receive one of 20 advance copies of My Dark Vanessa.

Category: Advance copy giveaway