Author(s): Catherine Chidgey

Novel | Aotearoa Fiction | Crime and Thriller | 2024 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards long lists

A new novel from the Women's Prize for Fiction longlisted, Dublin Literary Award shortlisted, and Ockham NZ Book Award winning author of The Axeman's Carnival and Remote Sympathy, Catherine Chidgey. Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine's sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie. Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, Pet will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Go-Between, Heavenly Creatures and Au Revoir Les Enfants among them.  'Refreshing, compelling and surprising.'-Ann Morgan, author of Beside Myself and Reading the World

Review: "Chidgey is a find." * Times Literary Supplement *
"A writer of formidable resources, a deft stylist possessed of uncanny imaginative acuity." * The Guardian *
"An artist who may claim a perfect ear, an exquisite tone." * Evening Post *
"Intelligent, lyrical, disciplined and observant, she is the real deal, the star of her generation" * New Zealand Listener magazine *
"Highly original and deeply researched, Catherine Chidgey's Remote Sympathy is a powerful and disturbing study in terrible lies and the human need to believe them." * Annie Proulx (on Remote Sympathy) *
"A wonderful new talent." * Nick Hornby *
"One of the most original, brave and profound explorations of the darkest recesses of the human heart I have ever read." * Sylvia Nasar (on Remote Sympathy) *