Books by Ottessa Moshfegh
“It’s narrated by an alcoholic sailor who has been accused of murdering his best friend and shipmate. He also can’t remember doing it, which echoes Alias Grace. So he’s trying to remember what happened that night, but it’s fragmented and confusing. He’s unreliable, so we get glimpses of his memories in a very intense, vivid, stream-of-consciousness style. This was one of my biggest inspirations for Victorian Psycho. It feels so visceral, so unique. Reading it is almost an experience of the body. I felt like it was repeatedly slapping me in the face until the end.” Read more...
Historical Novels Set in the Victorian Era
Virginia Feito, Novelist
“Set in a medieval fiefdom racked by plague, drought and famine, Lapvona features a wide cast of villagers struggling to survive in the face of corruption, cruelty and the occult. Although very different in subject matter to her biggest hits, the why-dunnit noir Eileen and the comfortably numb tale of self-isolation My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Lapvona shares their macabre interest in the grotesque and the darker sides of human nature.” Read more...
The Notable Novels of Summer 2022
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
Death in Her Hands: A Novel
by Ottessa Moshfegh
The highly-anticipated new novel from the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and the Booker-shortlisted Eileen is to be published on 21 April 2020. Ottessa Moshfegh, selected as one of Granta's best young American novelists in 2017, is one of the most outstanding literary talents working today, and produces darkly provocative fiction.
“The friendship in it is very sweet, actually: it’s about two women, one of whom doesn’t have a name, and her best friend, Reva. They’re both brilliant comic characters, but Reva really lived on with me. Ottessa Moshfegh has this ability to say so much with little spiky details that linger.” Read more...
Lauren Mechling, Journalist
Interviews where books by Ottessa Moshfegh were recommended
The best books on Friendship, recommended by Lauren Mechling
Friendships: they can be hard to keep and even harder to understand. Yet so often they end up having enormous impacts on our lives. Lauren Mechling, contributing editor at Vogue and author of the novel How Could She, picks the novelists that best portray the thorny underside of friendship as well as its joys.
Editors’ Picks: Notable New Novels of Early 2020, recommended by Cal Flyn
Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn rounds up the most hotly anticipated new novels of early 2020, including the final instalment in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy and new work from the authors of Dept. of Speculation, Eileen and Station Eleven.
The Notable Novels of Summer 2022, recommended by Cal Flyn
If you’re looking for a new book to keep you entertained or intellectually excited over the summer break, we’ve got you covered. Five Books’ deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a round-up of the notable new novels of summer 2022, from snappy debuts and fantasy epics to the latest book from the most recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Historical Novels Set in the Victorian Era, recommended by Virginia Feito
The Victorian era—defined by its imperial ambition, strict moral and social codes, and flashes of brutality—serves as fertile ground for historical fiction, argues Virginia Feito, whose acclaimed new book Victorian Psycho satirises the hypocrisy of the age. Here, she recommends five boundary-pushing novels that expose the darker underbelly of a most mannered age.
