MAN OUT OF TIME
STEPHANIE BISHOP
THE ANNIVERSARY
2023
W&N (UK)
Hachette (Australia)
Grove Atlantic (US)
DTV (Germany)
Marsilio (Italy)
Trei (Romania)
Magneto (Hungary)
Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Her former professor, Patrick is much older than J.B.. But when they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all new gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. He is a film director. A cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his.
For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. There is nothing but dark water all around them.
Then a storm hits and Patrick falls off the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick – and the truth about their marriage – begins.
'Elegant and highly accomplished… Dangerously readable… If only all novels were this engaging and this perceptive about human nature.'
THE OBSERVER
'A stylish read you won’t be able to put down.'
THE TIMES
'The Anniversary is a compulsive yet redemptive book layered with nuances that will have those new to Bishop's work hunting out her backlist.'
FINANCIAL TIMES
'The Anniversary is bejewelled with lovely moments and undeniably exquisite writing, a fine education about desire… An admirable and ambitious investigation into some troublesome contemporary things about men and women and the forces of desire, not just sexual but creative desire.'
THE SATURDAY AGE
'The Anniversary is a haunting mystery, sophisticated, subtle and subversive. Bishop considers the discipline, scrupulous and otherwise, required to make a marriage, as well as to make art, capturing the longing and the disappointment inherent in the attempt to make one's self known to others.'
Susanna Moore, author of IN THE CUT
‘In The Anniversary Stephanie Bishop expertly and mercilessly builds an atmosphere of intense uncertainty and threat. You won’t want to put it down.’
Chris Power, author of A LONELY MAN
‘The dread that slowly creeps into your bones while reading The Anniversary is difficult to shake off, yet you cannot look away. I revelled in every bit of this astute, compelling, psychological novel.’
Virginia Feito, author of MRS MARCH
‘Exquisite, profound, and utterly exhilarating: The Anniversary is a stunning achievement.’
Mark Brandi, author of WIMMERA
'Very addictive and so smart - a fever dream about a writer getting everything they want and living out all their nightmares at the same time.'
Rebecca May Johnson, author of SMALL FIRES
'I absolutely loved The Anniversary, a literary thriller that is simultaneously addictive, compelling, and deeply clever.'
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of EVERYONE IS STILL ALIVE
'Compelling and dark, a psychological thriller that makes you want to peel back the pages . . . The Anniversary lives up to the hype. For fans of Rachel Cusk and Siri Hustvedt'
BOOKS & PUBLISHING
'A literary potboiler about love, obsession, professional rivalry between intimates and the dilemmas confronting a female artist. Riveting.'
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'The Anniversary is an example of both deft literary craft and an engrossing read - a feat rarer than it should be.'
AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW
'Such a stylish, incisive novel, tight with suspense and powerful insight. I loved it and will be recommending it far and wide.'
Megan Hunter, author of THE END WE START FROM
'Nothing in this exquisitely twisted tale is quite what it seems. But though the cool, sharp, disenchanted narrator is not to be trusted, one thing about her is for real - her ability to say things so witty and so pungently true I kept turning down pages to mark them. If I kept a commonplace book I would have filled it with lines from this compelling novel about creativity and its discontents.'
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of THE PIKE
'I absolutely loved The Anniversary, with its very rare combination of elegance and tension. The dark yet subtle sense of foreboding draws you into the story so cleverly. Magnificent writing that is utterly compelling.'
Joanna Cannon, author of THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP
'Stephanie Bishop's The Anniversary is literature at its very, very best - her talent shimmers off every single page, her prose is exquisite and her observations about the complexities and competitiveness of intimate relationships, the chaos of the human condition and the inexorable tension between love, family, creativity and art-making are second to none. This novel is an absolute triumph in every respect.'
Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of MY BODY KEEPS YOUR SECRETS
‘Tense, elegant, sensuous.’
Niamh Campbell, author of WE WERE YOUNG
'Stephanie Bishop's novel The Anniversary is seductive, mysterious, and fiercely intelligent. Bishop peels back, with great insight and artistry, layer after layer of her character's psyche, laying bare the singular pleasures and secret resentments at the centre of any marriage, any life. This is a book to be savoured for its elegant sentences and psychological depth, but you'll be hard-pressed not to devour it in a few voracious sittings.
Sara Freeman, author of TIDES