True Story: this genre-defying novel marks the arrival of a powerful new literary voice - Softcover

Petty, Kate Reed

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1787478475 ISBN 13: 9781787478473

Publisher: riverrun, 2021

Synopsis

Inventive, electrifying and daring, True Story is a novel like nothing you've ever read before.

'A mind-blowing page-turning un-put-downable heartwarming empathetic formally inventive horror suspense thriller, with a life-affirming and timely feminist message' Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot

'Where our obsession with true-life crime meets page-turner' Stylist, The best summer reads for 2020
'Provocative' Red

'Clever and inventive, this is a supremely accomplished debut about the nature of truth in a world littered with monsters both real and imagined. It's up to the reader to decide which is which' Daily Express


After a college party, two boys drive a girl home: drunk and passed out in the back seat. Rumours spread about what they did to her, but later they'll tell the police a different version of events. Alice will never remember what truly happened. Her fracture runs deep, hidden beneath cleverness and wry humour. Nick - a sensitive, misguided boy who stood by - will never forget.

That's just the beginning of this extraordinary journey into memory, fear and self-portrayal. Through university applications, a terrifying abusive relationship, a fateful reckoning with addiction and a final mind-bending twist, Alice and Nick will take on different roles to each other - some real, some invented - until finally, brought face to face once again, the secret of that night is revealed.

Startlingly relevant and enthralling in its brilliance, True Story is by turns a campus novel, psychological thriller, horror story and crime noir, each narrative frame stripping away the fictions we tell about women, men and the very nature of truth. It introduces Kate Reed Petty as a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Reed Petty lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work has been published by Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, Los Angeles Review of Books Blog, and many others, and her short films have appeared on Narrative magazine and at the Maryland Film Festival. She is also co-author of the children's graphic novel Chasma Knights, with Boya Sun. Petty graduated from the College of William & Mary, and earned Kate and she holds a master of letters in fiction writing from the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Edition details

• Publisher: riverrun
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1787478475
• ISBN 13: 9781787478473
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400